Scene to Song July Newsletter
"I will sing the song of purple summer, All shall know the wonder of purple summer"
The first season of Scene to Song started in June of 2018 and went through to the end of the year. After that, Scene to Song’s seasons started in January and went through the year with a two or three month summer hiatus. I realize this somewhat follows the format of the now old-fashioned television season, except my hiatus broke up the season instead of being a break in between. But even though I’ve switched to a monthly release schedule, I still like the summer hiatus to slow down a bit and to plan and record some episodes. I wasn’t sure how this was going to go, but now I can confidently say that there will be no episode this July. The monthly episodes will resume in August.
As I’ve seen other podcasts do, I released a clip show this month to tide everyone over. I have been listening to older episodes of Scene to Song to refresh my memory, and as I was listening to John Verderber’s season 2 episode on Political Musicals, I was really enjoying our discussion of Stephen Sondheim's "Someone in a Tree" from Pacific Overtures. It hit me that I should release some of these early “Why Is This So Good?” segment discussions so that listeners can go back to them easily. I hope you enjoy revisiting the three I included. I’ll try to release more throughout the season.
Thank you for sticking with me through July and get excited for new discussions starting next month.
And if you are not yet subscribed to these emails and want to be, subscribe here:
— Shoshana
Recent Episodes
Mini Episode: A "Why Is This So Good?" Collection
I’m not releasing a new episode this month, so instead I thought I’d put together a few “Why is This So Good” sections from the first and second seasons to hold us over until the next new episode in August. I’ve included A Strange Loop writer Michael R. Jackson talking about the song "Not Anymore" from the 1973 musical Raisin from episode 4; composer, writer, and director John Grimmett talking about the song sequence "Montage/Safe/The One I Love" from Michael John LaChiusa's 1993 musical Hello Again from episode 7; and writer John Verderber talking about Stephen Sondheim's song "Someone in a Tree" from his 1976 musical Pacific Overtures from episode 19.
Music played in this episode:
"Not Anymore" from Raisin
"Montage/Safe/The One I Love" from Hello Again
"Someone in a Tree" from Pacific Overtures
Musical of the Month
Giant by Michael John LaChuisa and Sybille Pearson
Happy 62nd Birthday, composer/lyricist/writer Michael John LaChiusa, born today, July 24th! Just like last month’s birthday celebrant, Jason Robert Brown, LaChiusa has so many musicals to celebrate with. I’m choosing 2012’s Giant, which I saw at the Public Theater in New York City, because, well, composer and lyricist Landon Braverman came on Scene to Song last year to do an entire episode on it. The score is gorgeous.
LaChiusa rarely collaborates with a bookwriter, but he did so with bookwriter Sybille Pearson on Giant and another musical, Rain, which premiered at the Old Globe in San Diego in 2016. I saw an earlier draft of Rain at New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Theater season at Vassar in 2015 and wish there were a way to see a full production, as I wasn’t able to get out to San Diego at the time.
For more on LaChiusa and Giant, I wrote an article on LaChiusa for American Theatre magazine in 2016 and interviewed Pearson about her work on Giant for The Huffington Post in 2012.
So I’m celebrating LaChiusa’s birthday by listening to episode 98 on Michael John LaChiusa and Sybille Pearson's Giant and with episode 88 on Song Cycles in Musical Theater, in which composer, lyricist, and librettist Timothy Huang discusses LaChiusa’s musicals First Daughter Suite and Hello Again. Speaking of Hello Again, composer, writer, and director John Grimmett discusses the song sequence "Montage/Safe/The One I Love" from Hello Again in episode 7 on The Opera Libretto vs. the Book in Musical Theater. I also included it in yesterday’s mini episode of “Why Is This So Good” segments.
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 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.
The Angel Makers
There are a couple new musicals at the SheNYC Arts Summer Theatre Festival next month, and while I won’t get to see them, I want to at least highlight one of them as part of the new musicals section. The Angel Makers is based on the true story of the Hungarian women who took justice into their own hands to escape abusive marriages.
Creative Team: Book and Lyrics by Amanda Freedman; Music and Lyrics by Lorenzo Pipino
Synopsis: Suzannah, a midwife, arrives in Nagyrév, Hungary at the end of the Great War. When the men return home from the battlefield, they bring the war’s violence with them and domestic abuse becomes rampant. When one woman desperately seeks Suzannah’s help, she teams up with the coroner’s wife, Júlia, to run an operation designed to keep the women safe and earn back their freedom. But as the women gain power in their town—and the men grow terrified—the lines between evil and justice become blurred.
Development History: Part of SheNYC Arts Summer Theater Festival in August, 2024.
Listen to some of the songs.
Find out more about The Angel Makers on their website and on Instagram.
Something Wonderful
Some additional recommendations for July:
Podcast: Once More, With Feeling Podcast: When TV Breaks into Song. Two-time Scene to Song podcast guest Christopher Culp has a new podcast about the intersection between television and musicals. I am already a guest on the second episode, “‘Once More, With Feeling’ and a Kazoo Solo ft. Shoshana Greenberg,” about the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode.
Cast Recordings: The Connector and Teeth. I love off-Broadway musical cast recordings, and two great ones have recently been released: The Connector by composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown and Jonathan Marc Sherman and Teeth by Michael R. Jackson and Anna K. Jacobs. I’m so grateful these musicals are being preserved this way.
Field Trip: The Oscar Hammerstein Museum and Theatre Education Center. Highland Farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania now offers guided tours of Oscar Hammerstein II's estate, where he penned the lyrics to many of his most famous works, on Fridays and Sundays this summer. Private tours are available as well. I’m going next month and will report back.
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.