The Lucky Penny Radio Theatre Podcast

This episode features a lot of talk about, and some music from "Moana," which has very little to do with our COMEBACK season (!) that we lay out in some detail. Instead of copying and pasting the season we missed during the pandemic, we made a few changes and now we are raring to go.   

This time we focus on theatre news and stories of re-opening abound. You'll hear a teaser for what LPP is planning as our gran return, and news from Broadway where theatres are now expected to re-open at full capacity in mid September. Our Feature song comes from a new show that was cut short by the pandemic but will reopen soon. 

It was only 36 minutes but there were performers and an audience in a New York theatre recently for the first time in more than a year. That's progress. And with things looking up in California, Lucky Penny is making plans to get back in action, as we work on our latest Video Theatre creation.

Get to know JENNY VEILLEUX. She grew up in Napa and became a full-on triple threat. Jenny is one of four talented women singing in our next Video Theatre project, "In the Mood," which we are rehearsing and filming in the next few weeks. Jenny's in our Feature slot, too, as we listen to her wonderful performance from an earlier Video Theatre show called "For the Love of It."

It's been a year since the pandemic began and Taylor laments the empty feeling when you no longer have special "show underwear" in your life. Then a visit with the delightful KIRSTIN PIESCHKE who may actually be an undercover Disney princess, and our featured song is the "11 o'clock number" Kirstin slayed in our production of "9 to 5." 

Another LP Video Theatre Project is in the works - our "PlayDemic" festival of short plays written during the pandemic - and we share some details, followed by special guest DANIELLE DEBOW talking about award-winning performances and trying to keep performing while having babies. Our Feature is a salute to one of Danielle's most notable roles. 

Large venues in NYC can reopen Feb. 23 and that bodes well for the return of theatre - we get into some detail on the short plays in our "PlayDemic" which debuts Feb. 26 - and spend some time with the multi-talented writer/composer/performer ROB BROADHURST, with our featured song from a musical that Rob, Taylor, and Barry starred in a few years back. 

This time we sneak peek our "PlayDemic" - report out on Broadway stars getting some love from movie and TV award nominators - and chat with the ultimate Stage Mother SUSAN BARTOLUCCI who has SO many stories...

Marin County's famed Mountain Play cancelled for this summer - that's part of our theatre news this time. Plus a conversation with DAE SPERING who runs the Downtown Theatre and Missouri Street Theatre in Fairfield as we share producer frustrations - and in our Feature slot, a song from a big Broadway hit that will be getting A LOT of productions when live theatre comes back post-pandemic.  

In this episode we talk about what Dr. Anthony Fauci said in NYC January 9th regarding the return of live theatre, and update our progress on our project called the "PlayDemic." Then a lovely talk with Director MICHAEL ROSS (also a LP Board member) - and a song from a show we have a passion for, that we can't produce quite yet, but one we will never give up on. Note: The performance that we talk about in this episode took place at Town Hall in New York on Dec. 12, 2016. The show is on YouTube and we encourage you to see it.

After a two-week hiatus the pod returns with a little national theatre news about "Spamalot" and "Mean Girls," Lucky Penny theatre news about our "Play-Demic" festival, a delightful chat with musician/actor/director/all- around-nice-guy MICHAEL SCOTT WELLS, and a song from the 2011 revival of "Godspell."

We continue to explore the question "Is Christmas the sexiest holiday?" while we tell tales of Christmas theatre long long ago (and share nice bottle of bubbles). Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Talk to you in '21.

BRIAN WATSON is our special guest, talking about his career on stage and backstage. Brian created the set for our new show "No Place Like Home for the Holidays with Lucky Penny" and also performs in the production. We say goodbye to Ann Reinking, and offer a fun classic tune from "White Christmas" in our feature lot. Happy Holidays from all of us to you!

In this episode we talk about two upcoming holidays shows we are working on now (see more at www.luckypennynapa.com), and welcome special guest MIA MALM. Mia is a Napa resident who had a phenomenal theatre career, dancing for Bob Fosse at times, and was part of the production of "Shine", which has been called "a beautiful flop." We feature a song from "Smile" that you may have never heard before.

Fresh from a week off for Thanksgiving it's Episode 12, with the latest news on our Video Theatre production now in the works for the Christmas season - plus some big time theatre news about Jonathan Larson's "Tick Tick Boom" which is a dramatic musical coming soon to Netflix and directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda - and our resident stage manager JEFF BRISTOW joins us and tells the story of what happened when he played Ruckly in our 2019 production of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

This time we zoom in on awkward Zoom waves, our upcoming on-demand Video Theatre show for the holidays, why movie remakes go wrong, and eleventy-seven other things - plus SCOTTIE WOODARD in our special guest slot and a favorite song from the 2006 revival of "Company."

KIMMY DOOLEY is our special guest on this week's episode - she directed the production of "Billy Elliot" in which Taylor played Mrs. Wilkinson. We feature a song from that wonderful show. And in theatre news ww talk about how smaller New York venues are lobbying to reopen.

An update on LP's holiday shows in the making, big time theatre news reveals that streaming services are gobbling up Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, we get you acquainted with the delightful KAREN PINOMAKI, and highlight a song from "The Full Monty" that shows the skills of composer David Yazbek. 

In this episode we talk about a masked and distanced live performance that shows how Bay Area theatres are not giving in to the pandemic and trying to bounce back; special guest MIKE SCHAEFFER tells us about "The Thanksgiving Play" at Left Edge Theatre in Santa Rosa and amazes us with his encyclopedic knowledge of films for Halloween; and our feature spotlights a song we love, that's about love, from "Bonnie & Clyde."

On the Theatre News beat, SAG-AFTRA and AEA are still fighting, the 2020 Tony nominations came out, and we're debuting a new Covid-safe production from our Napa Academy of Performing Arts. Our special guest is the delightful Shannon Rider, who had a vision for an original musical that we developed into a smash hit called "I Wanna Be Bad." And Shannon is in the spotlight in our Feature this week with a killer performance of "Minnie the Moocher," recorded live at Lucky Penny. 

Good news and bad news from the New York theatre world; a story about how big shows are morphing into small shows; our special guest is award winning choreographer STACI ARRIAGA, who tells us how she feels about dancers marking in rehearsal (watch out people); and our Feature for the week, one of Staci's favorite musical theatre songs which is very familiar but comes with a little-known back story.  

The pandemic has caused a rift between the two major unions that represent actors and other performing arts workers - we talk about that in this week's theatre news. Then we welcome the unbelievably talented Phillip Percy Williams as our special guest, and travel down memory lane to hear Phillip blow the roof off the joint with his performance of "Free At Last" from "Big River."

On episode 4, we reveal a new partnership between Lucky Penny and Justin-Siena High School for some devised holiday theatre with the students. We talk shop with James Sasser in NYC and learn about a super cool new project he's working on involving the life of the great Alexandre Dumas. And our feature segment brings you Ainsley McNicoll, recorded live at the Lucky Penny Community Arts Center, singing a favorite song that will tug at your heart strings.   

In this episode we talk about how theatres have been knocked around by infectious disease for millennia, and how they dealt with it. Our special guest is Jennifer King, director, educator, actor and showmance expert. In our feature slot, a beautiful new version of a classic Broadway song performed for "Miscast 20." And a few words about Lucky Penny's upcoming Video Theatre productions.  

In this episode we talk about what we're working on now at Lucky Penny, including the new youth musical  "Super Happy Awesome News," bad news from Dr. Fauci on the return of live theatre, a chat with special guest Daniela Innocenti-Beem, and Dani's performance of "Pure Imagination" from our recent "For the Love of It" virtual cabaret show. 

In our first episode we talk about our new Video Theatre and Radio Theatre projects (our pandemic pivot) and welcome a special mystery celebrity guest with great stories of life as a performing artist., and we reveal our first Arts Challenge.