Scene to Song July Newsletter
"The temperature's rising, it isn't surprising, she certainly can can-can."
Thank you to everyone who watched, listened to, and participated in the Scene to Song 5-Year Anniversary Live Show on June 25th! A great group of nine guests chatted with me about musical theater for an hour and 40 minutes, and you can either watch it on the Scene to Song Facebook page or listen to it as a podcast. I love doing these group shows and hope to increase them now to two a year.
I’m already scheduling recordings for the next batch of season six episodes, set to be released starting in September. I’m really excited about the guests and topics, so keep your eyes on wherever you get the new episodes this fall. Until then, find more Scene to Song content on the social media pages.
And if you are not yet subscribed to these emails and want to be, subscribe here:
— Shoshana
Recent Episodes
Episode 95: Five-Year Anniversary Live Show
In this episode, nine guests from the past five seasons return to talk about Scene to Song episodes we have loved and if the discussions have changed our thoughts on musical theater in any way. We also talk about the late lyricist Sheldon Harnick and the song “Telephone Wire” from Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron's Fun Home.
This discussion was held live on Scene to Song’s Facebook page on June 25, 2023, and was recorded for this podcast almost in its entirety.
Music played in this episode:
"Telephone Wire" from Fun Home
Guests:
Victoria Gordon (Episode 37: Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman's Evening Primrose
Deborah Blumenthal (Episode 57: Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's Company
Tammy Tuckey (Episode 75: Marvin Hamlisch, David Zippel, and Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl)
Jessica Fleitman (Episode 15: The Musical My Fair Lady
Victoria Myers (Episode 67: The Musical Roles of Bernadette Peters)
Orian Israelsohn (Episode 81: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart, and Richard Stilgoe’s The Phantom of the Opera, Episode 28: The Bock and Harnick Musicals Fiddler on the Roof and The Rothschilds)
Seth Christenfeld (Episode 5: Adaptations in Musical Theater)
BethAnn Cohen (Episode 66: Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine‘s Into the Woods, Episode 43: TV Musical Episodes, Episode 22: Representations of Judaism in Musical Theater
Robert Lee (Episode 65: Artist Characters in Musical Theater)
Musical of the Month
Two Gentlemen of Verona by Galt MacDermot,, John Guare, and Mel Shapiro
If people know the musical Two Gentlemen of Verona, they mostly know it as the musical that beat Follies for the 1972 Tony Award for Best Musical. It also beat Grease, last month’s musical of the month, but not as many people care about that. This is a shame because it’s an enjoyable musical that deserves to be thought of apart from Follies.
Galt MacDermot, best known as the composer for Hair, writes more catchy tunes to the lyrics of playwright John Guare (The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation). Guare also wrote the book with director Mel Shapiro. Another fun fact: apparently Jeff Goldblum was in the chorus in his Broadway debut.
I saw the 2005 production at the Delacort Theatre in Central Park, which is where this show began in July of 1971 before it moved to Broadway later that year. To me, it’s a perfect park musical. Hair is another—both make you want to dance, there are moments of great fun and also moments of darkness, and both are based on or use Shakespeare plays. I wish this musical were done more often, not just in Central Park but everywhere.
Also in July…
July 3: Happy Birthday, composer David Shire (1937)! Celebrate his work by listening to a discussion on his song “It's Time” from Big: The Musical in episode 39 on Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
July 4: Happy Birthday, playwright/librettist Neil Simon (1927)! Celebrate his work by listening to episode 75 on Marvin Hamlisch, David Zippel, and Neil Simon’s The Goodbye Girl
July 6: Happy Birthday, composer Claude Michel-Schonberg (1944)! We talk about the Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg musicals Les Miserables and Miss Saigon in multiple episodes, most recently in episode 73 on Evil Characters in Musical Theater and in episode 58 on Sung-Through Musicals in Musical Theater.
July 10: Happy Birthday, lyricist/librettist Noble Sissle (1889) and composer/lyricist Jerry Herman (1932)! Celebrate Noble Sissle by listening to episode 87 on Eubie Blake, Noble Sissle, Flournoy Miller, and Aubrey Lyles’s Shuffle Along and listen to a discussion of his song “Memories of You” in episode 74 on Black History of British Musical Theater. Celebrate Jerry Herman in episode 34 on The Musicals of Jerry Herman.
July 12: Happy Birthday, lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895)! Celebrate by listening to a discussion on his song “Many a New Day” from Oklahoma in episode 45 on The Illusion of the Everyman in Musical Theater and to episode 18 on The Women of Rodgers and Hammerstein.
July 14: Happy Birthday, librettist Arthur Laurents (1918)!
July 15: Happy Birthday, lyricist Dorothy Fields (1905)! Celebrate her work in episode 61 on The Musicals of Cy Coleman.
July 24: Happy Birthday, Michael John LaChiusa! Celebrate by listening to a discussion of his work in episode 88 on Song Cycles in Musical Theater and listen to a discussion of the song sequence "Montage/Safe/The One I Love" from Michael John LaChiusa's 1993 musical Hello Again.
July 27: Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s Little Shop of Horrors opens off-Broadway (1982). Celebrate by listening to episode 62 on Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s Little Shop of Horrors.
July 31: Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx, and Jeff Whitty’s Avenue Q opens on Broadway (2003).
Find more musical theater history for July 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.
NAMT
Why look at one new musical when you can look at eight new musicals? This month I’m highlighting every new musical going to the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) 35th Annual Festival of New Musicals this fall. Take a look at all the musicals here.
Something Wonderful
Some additional recommendations for July:
Real Estate: Stephen Sondheim’s former residence is for sale! Take a look inside his former home, complete with photos, a floor plan, and a virtual tour. Do you have $7,000,000 for this townhouse? If so, consider buying it and setting up a musical theater writers residency. Four to five writers could live and write here together quite comfortably. Curbed also has a story on this.
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.” Support the podcast on Patreon.
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.