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Beowulf Boritt is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award® winning set for Susan Stroman's production of New York, New York. He designed the Tony Award® winning set for James Lapine's Act One. He has received four additional Tony Award® nominations for his designs of The Scottsboro Boys, POTUS, Therese Raquin, and Flying Over Sunset, for which he won a Drama Desk award. His book about set design, Transforming Space Over Time, is available on Amazon. He is the founder and manager of The 1/52 Project which provides financial support to encourage early career designers from historically excluded groups, with the aim of diversifying and strengthening the Broadway design community. Beowulf designed Harold Prince's final Broadway shows: Prince of Broadway and LoveMusik. In addition, he designed the sets for Sondheim on Sondheim, The Twenty-Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Steve Martin's Meteor Shower, A Bronx Tale, August Wilson's The Piano Lesson, Come From Away. Freestyle Love Supreme, Ohio State Murders, Mike Birbiglia's The New One and The Old Man and The Pool. Other highlights include the New York and Russian productions of Chaplin, the revival of On The Town, Rob Askins' Hand To God and the long running hit Rock of Ages. Off-Broadway, he has designed over one hundred shows, including Much Ado About Nothing, Merry Wives, and Coriolanus for Shakespeare in the Park, Fiddler on The Roof (in Yiddish), The Last Five Years, Mike Birbiglia's The New One, Sleepwalk With Me, My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, Thank God For Jokes and Strindberg's Miss Julie. His designs are in the permanent collections of The Smithsonian Museum of American History and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts as well as several private collections. In addition to a Tony Award he has been honored with an 2007 OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence in Set Design, an Audelco Award, a Barrymore award, a Live Design Award for Innovation in Scenic Design, a Broadway Beacon Award, and a St. Louis Theater Circle Award. He has been nominated for four Drama Desk Awards, three Lucille Lortel Awards, four NY Outer Critic's Circle Awards, an LA Ovation Award, an LA NAACP Award, a San Francisco Critic's Circle Award and six Henry Hewes Awards.
Michael Cerveris is a two-time Tony Award and Grammy Award winning actor for Fun Home, The Who's Tommy, and Assassins, (also Lucille Lortel Award) with additional Tony nominations for Evita, LoveMusik, and John Doyle's Sweeney Todd. Other Broadway includes In The Next Room, Hedda Gabler, Cymbeline, and Titanic. Off-Broadway includes King Lear, Macbeth, Abingdon Square, Nikolai and the Others, Sondheim's Road Show, an oak tree, and The Games at BAM/Next Wave with Meredith Monk and Ping Chong, as well as Hedwig off-Broadway, in Los Angeles and on London's West End. Films include Ant Man and The Wasp, Cirque Du Freak and The Mexican. Television series include Julian Fellowes' upcoming “The Gilded Age” for HBO, David Fincher's “Mindhunter,” Stephen Soderberg's “Mosaic,” and “The Knick,” David Simon's “The Plot Against America,” and "Tremé," "Gotham," "The Tick," "Billions," “Evil,” “Blacklist,” “Madame Secretary,” "The Good Wife," and five seasons as September, The Observer on "Fringe." Concerts include New York City Opera, National Symphony in DC New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, New Orleans' JazzFest and a US/UK tour playing guitar for punk icon Bob Mould. Cerveris has recorded three solo albums, ‘Dog Eared,' ‘Piety,' and ‘Hinterlands.' and his Americana band Loose Cattle records and performs frequently in New Orleans and New York. The UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF MAYORS and the Board of Directors of AMERICANS FOR THE ARTS, honored Cerveris in 2017 with The Citizen-Artist Award which “recognizes artists who have made the highest contributions both in their professional artistic endeavors to advance the arts as well as in their personal charitable pursuits to improve the world." cerverismusic.com
Happy Pride! "Ultimately, I think our job as artists is to share the secrets of our heart so that others may be set free... saving our own lives so that others can save theirs." Erik Liberman soothes the soul, simple as that. Whether or not it's his voice, his charm, his talent, or his point of view, Erik makes the world better for other people. “It's not enough to want to make it, you've got to have something to make it with,” is a quote he holds near and dear. After the experience of seeing Chita Rivera in Kiss of the Spider Woman, and having said that to Erik, it kept him focused and able to hang in the industry and build success; a concept we touch on in this episode paired with failure. Whenever interacting with someone, Erik tries to hold a vision for who someone was and who they will be. In a place of presence, it not only meets them in the now, but it extends forward and backwards. “We seek to be drawn from the plague of linear time into an encounter of infinity,” he says. “And that's why with great stars they say they stopped time.” Erik is also a survivor of a near death experience, which has informed his artistry. “What I realized was the thing that everything was fearing: death, was the wrong place to put the focus,” he says. “The place to put the focus is on utilizing the time one has in the body to do what one came for.” In this episode, Erik provides incredibly useful insight and tools on how the multi-hyphenate experience helps us understand the ecosystem of show business as a whole. You'll also hear us touch on the concept of vulnerability, weaponizing vulnerability, near death experiences, dignity & alignment, existentialism, commercial theatre, activism, and the discipline to sit down with yourself and create something that is bigger than you. "Multifaceted, irreducible, and astonishing." - Joan Juliet Buck, former editor-in-chief of French Vogue Mentored by Maureen Stapleton, named a YoungArts winner in high school, and trained at London's Complicité and National Theatre, where he came under the wing of Dame Judi Dench. He received a grant to study with master clown teacher Philippe Gaulier in France, and in Los Angeles, was the face of noted improv-and-sketch-comedy school, The Groundlings. Liberman was "discovered" by 21-time Tony Award winning director and producer Hal Prince as a winner of the Lotte Lenya Competition. Prince hired him for his Broadway debut in Lovemusik, written by Oscar winner Alfred Uhry and starring Tony winners Donna Murphy and Michael Cerveris, remarking of the actor, "Erik is the real deal. Once you've seen him, you can't forget him." Liberman went on to receive Helen Hayes, Ovation, Garland, and Connecticut Critics Circle Awards, his onstage work reviewed as "a showcase of sheer star power." He originated the roles of The Telephone Guy in the award-winning Band's Visit opposite Tony Shalhoub, Charles Revson opposite Patti LuPone and Christine Ebersole in War Paint, and Clopin in Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz, and Peter Parnell's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Other theatre highlights include: Motel the Tailor in Fiddler opposite Harvey Fierstein and the film's star, Topol. Some television credits include: Amazon's Transparent, Modern Family, and Martin Scorsese's Vinyl, and he will soon appear in the film American Dream. Liberman has contributed to books including Performance of the Century, Wisdom From an Empty Mind, and Luminous Life. His master class series, Bridge to Broadway, benefited 45 charities and earned him a 2020 Encore Award from The Actors Fund, and he is currently developing a new book, documentary, and series for television. For more information, please visit www.erikliberman.org and follow @erikliberman. Connect with Michael: @themichaelkushner (IG and TikTok) @dearmultihyphenate (IG) www.michaelkushneronline.com Produced by Alan Seales and the Broadway Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Guests: Christine Ebersole and Erik Liberman Boyfriends Michael Kushner and Remy Germinario host My Broadway Memory, keeping Broadway alive! Check us out for performances, comedy segments, fan segments, appearances by Divas and Legends, Good News, ways for you to be on the show, and more! My Broadway Memory is co-created by Michael Kushner and Brian Sedita. In this episode we talk about Christine's Tony Winning performance in Grey Gardens, her short lived Broadway debut, and Erik's hysterical memory of Elaine Stritch bleeding backstage of LoveMusik. Want more of My Broadway Memory?! Follow us on Social! @MyBroadwayMemory on Instagram and Facebook and @MyBwayMemory on Twitter MICHAEL KUSHNER: Website, Instagram, or Dear Multi-Hyphenate Podcast REMY GERMINARIO: Website, Instagram BROADWAY PODCAST NETWORK: Website or Instagram #MyBroadwayMemory Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For the video, click here: https://youtu.be/IvMUoyYbfzQ Ann Morrison is an award-winning actress, writer, teacher and director for over 40 years. Her Broadway debut in Merrily We Roll Along garnered her the 1982 Theatre World Award, and she did her first OBC LP recording for RCA. 25 years later (2007) Harold Prince brought her back to Broadway for LoveMusik. She sang in a Sondheim celebration Children and Art at the New Amsterdam Theater and at the Merrily Reunion Concert at Laguardia High School. On London's West End she originated the title role in the musical PEG (based on “Peg O’ My Heart”). Nationally, she has starred in Sondheim on Sondheim, Moving On, Into the Woods, Peter Pan, Guys & Dolls, Cabaret, Oliver! Sunset Boulevard, On A Clear Day, Anything Goes, Can Can, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Good News, Embarrassments, Anyone Can Whistle, On The Verge, Noel & Gertie, Shadowlands, Ruthless!, I Do, I Do! Little Shop Of Horrors, Chess, Blithe Spirit, Of Thee I Sing, Driving Miss Daisy, plus many many more. The quintessential solo artist, Ann has performed as a cabaret artist in major venues across the country, most recently at Feinstein's/54 Below in NYC. Ann plays herself in the 2017 documentary Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened. Ann is the very proud mother of singer/composer/actor/music producer Huck Walton. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Morrison https://www.annmorrison.net https://www.masterworksbroadway.com/artist/ann-morrison/ https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/ann-morrison-92256
Career Q&A with Michael Cerveris on May 28, 2015. Moderated by Richard Ridge, Broadway World. Michael Cerveris (2015 Tony Award Winner for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical). Michael Cerveris recently received his sixth Tony Award nomination and second win for his role as Bruce Bechdel in the Broadway production of Fun Home based on Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel memoir of the same name. Previously, Cerveris received a Tony Award for his portrayal of John Wilkes Booth in Assassins, and nominations for his roles in Evita, LoveMusik, Sweeney Todd, and The Who’s Tommy. On screen, Cerveris has appeared in films and television series including The Good Wife, Treme, and Fringe. In addition to acting, he has recorded two solo albums, Dog Eared and the upcoming, Piety. His country band Loose Cattle recently released their live debut record, North of Houston.
Ann is an award-winning actress, writer, teacher and director for over 40 years. As an actress she starred on Broadway in Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along directed by Harold Prince (1982 Theatre World Award), and in LoveMusik (2007); London's West End in Peg; Off-Broadway in the musical Goblin Market (Drama Desk Award Nom.) and was an original cast member of Forbidden Broadway. Nationally, she has starred in Sondheim on Sondheim, Into the Woods, Peter Pan, Guys & Dolls, Cabaret, Oliver! Sunset Boulevard, On A Clear Day, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Good News, Embarrassments, Anyone Can Whistle, plus many many more. Locally she starred in Noel & Gertie, Shadowlands, Ruthless! I Do, I Do! with Blake Walton. The quintessential solo artist, Ann has performed cabaret in major venues across the country, most recently at Feinstein's/54 Below in NYC. She won a Best Actress Award for her solo play Linda Lovely Goes to Broadway in the United Solo Festival in NYC, and appeared there again with her solo play Word Painting: Soliloquies Around an Easel. Directing credits include both her solo play Trevor's Fire starring Blake Walton and his solo play Leading Men at the United Solo Festival; large musicals The Secret Garden, Merrily We Roll Along, On A Clear Day, Smoke On the Mountain as well as many plays and revues. Four of Ann's solo plays are published. She is the Co-founder and Artistic Director of Kaleidoscope, a musical theatre workshop for persons with developmental disabilities. She can be heard on original cast recordings and studio recordings such as Merrily We Roll Along, Peg, Goblin Market, Good News, I remember Mama, Lady Be Good, Sing Before Breakfast, and The Road to Ruin. She is the recipient of several HANDY, SAMMY, and SARASOTA MAGAZINE Awards as well as the JOHN RINGLING TOWERS AWARD. Ann plays herself in the 2017 documentary Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened. wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Morrison
In this special episode of Pardo's Turn, I sit down with the legendary Judy Blazer (The Fantasticks, Me and My Girl, Titanic, LoveMusik, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, Encores! City Center, NYC Opera, countless Off-Broadway/regional credits) to talk about her teaching, her eclectic background, and the messy world of musical theatre.
Alfred Uhry is a playwright and screenwriter. He has received an Academy Award, two Tony Awards and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for dramatic writing for Driving Miss Daisy. Other works include Here's Where I Belong, The Robber Bridegroom, America's Sweetheart, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Parade, Edgardo Mine, LoveMusik, Apples & Oranges, and Angel Reapers. He is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. There’s a bunch of mind-blowing moments in this podcast, including: How he kept writing after a couple of big ol’ Broadway disasters that would have sent most people to law school. Where he got the inspiration for Driving Miss Daisy, and the magic words he heard from his agent when she read it. Musicals and plays . . . and the different skills needed for both. His process of sitting down and writing, and how that has changed since he began. Writing what you know . . . the pros and the cons. This podcast is brought to you by Reproductions! They have been the leading headshot printer, nationwide, for 30 years. But that’s not all they do: Reproductions has a team dedicated to video services for demo reel editing, scene production when you need new footage, and musical theater filming as well for high-quality vocal performances with a professional accompianist. Their biggest difference is their turnaround time: videos are delivered within five days of shooting, and headshots as fast as the next day. So go ahead, place an order online at reproductions.com. Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway www.theproducersperspective.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Kristen Blodgette is a musical director, musical supervisor, and conductor, known for her many works with Andrew Lloyd Webber since conducting the National Tour of Cats in 1985. Other works include The Phantom of the Opera, Sunset Boulevard, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Woman in White, Mary Poppins, LoveMusik, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Evita. Kristen is the first MD we’ve had on the podcast, so I took this opportunity to learn more about the gig and her rise to the top, including . . . Her definition of what a Musical Director does. How she cold-called the Conductor of A Chorus Line at the theater, during the show, to try to get a meeting (and how it’s a shame that courage comes so easily when we’re young). The craft of turning non-singers into singers. What she thinks about the shrinking Broadway orchestras, including how Phantom has changed since it began. Why she doesn’t write . . . and how that lack-of-desire has made her an even better MD. Popcorn Falls is a comedy about the small town of Popcorn Falls that shows their struggle to escape bankruptcy by securing a large grant that can only be used if the town produces a play in a week. Led by the Mayor and the local handyman, the enterprising townsfolk try to rise to the challenge and prove that art can save the world. Check it out at: popcornfalls.com Keep up with me: @KenDavenportBway www.theproducersperspective.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In Part 2 of their conversation, Tony Award winner Donna Murphy shares with Ilana personal stories of how she began her career. She recalls hilarious details of being cast early on -- even when the odds were against her. And she talks about how she prepared with great precision for her audition for the role of "Fosca" in Sondheim's Passion -- a rolethat secured her place as a Broadway legend. She explains how Sondheim and Lapine work together and describes their collaboration as "shared poetry." With great sensitivity and rawness, Donna discusses how she now negotiates life and work after the death of her beloved husband and partner, Shawn Elliott. And ... she sings on the podcast!!! Donna Murphy’s award-winning performances in theater, film and television have forged a career of exceptional diversity, impressing both audiences and critics with her depth and skill. This “seductive actress of major transformative powers” (NY Times) was named by New York Magazine as one of “Three Living Legends” of the New York Theater and awarded in 2003 one of their prestigious “New York Awards” for her work in the theater. One of the most beloved and honored stage actresses of her generation, Murphy earned the Drama League Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theater. She currently shares the iconic role of Dolly Gallagher Levi with the legendary Bette Midler in the Tony Award winning revival of "Hello, Dolly!," for which she has received great critical acclaim. Ms. Murphy received the first of two Tony® Awards for Best Actress in a Musical, along with the Drama Desk and Drama League Awards, for her spellbinding creation of Fosca in Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s "Passion," which was filmed for PBS’ American Playhouse. She received her second Tony® Award, as well as a Drama League Award and Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations, for her “resplendent, matchless” (New York Post) performance as Anna Leonowens in the 1996 Tony® Award-winning revival of "The King and I." In 2004, she was honored with the Drama League Outstanding Achievement Award for her work in Musical Theater, the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Astaire Awards, as well as another Tony® nomination, for her hilarious comic tour de force as Ruth Sherwood in the Broadway Revival of "Wonderful Town." She returned to Broadway in 2007, receiving Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, and a Tony® nomination for her mesmerizing portrayal of the legendary actress-singer Lotte Lenya in "LoveMusik," directed by Harold Prince. Murphy’s first television film, HBO’s “Someone Had to be Benny,” earned her a Cable Ace Award as Best Actress in a Drama Special or Series, as well as a Daytime Emmy. Most recently, she starred as Jane Green, the matriarch of a prominent Southern family torn apart by the Civil War in PBS’ Mercy Street and guest starred on ABC’s hit show “Quantico” and CBS’ “Doubt” with Katherine Heigl and Laverne Cox. Other regular and recurring appearances include the mysterious “elegant woman” Angela Forrester in ABC’s “Resurrection,” Georgie on VH1’s “Hindsight,” Darlene Garretti on CBS’ “Made in Jersey” alongside Janet Montgomery and Kyle McLaughlin, the steely Denise Goodman on TNT’s “Trust Me” with Eric McCormack and Tom Cavanaugh, Heather Olshansky in CBS’ “Hack” opposite David Morse, and her critically acclaimed comedic performance as the neurotic psychiatrist Dr. Ruby Stern on ABC’s sitcom, “What About Joan,” starring Joan Cusack. For her contribution to the Arts, Culture and Public life, she’s received special honors from New York Magazine, Symphony Space, Greenwich Village’s Caring Community, the Women’s Project, The Little Orchestra Society, Irish America Magazine, the Breukelein Institute and Emerson College.
Donna Murphy is a two-time Tony Award winning American musical theater treasure. Donna's singular voice, her comedic skills, her dancing and the authenticity and humanity she brings to every role that she plays has made her one of the most beloved actresses of her generation. From Fosca in Sondheim’s "Passion" to her current role of Dolly Levi in "Hello, Dolly!," Donna brings the audience to its feet every night. In part one of this two part episode, Donna discusses her childhood and what it was like growing up as the eldest of seven children. She shares with Ilana the discovery of her musical gifts at the age of three! And she talks of her process and the discipline needed to find every role. Donna also reveals her deep belief that she was brought into this world to perform. Welcome Donna Murphy! Donna Murphy’s award-winning performances in theater, film and television have forged a career of exceptional diversity, impressing both audiences and critics with her depth and skill. This “seductive actress of major transformative powers” (NY Times) was named by New York Magazine as one of “Three Living Legends” of the New York Theater and awarded in 2003 one of their prestigious “New York Awards” for her work in the theater. One of the most beloved and honored stage actresses of her generation, Murphy earned the Drama League Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theater. She currently shares the iconic role of Dolly Gallagher Levi with the legendary Bette Midler in the Tony Award winning revival of "Hello, Dolly!," for which she has received great critical acclaim. Ms. Murphy received the first of two Tony® Awards for Best Actress in a Musical, along with the Drama Desk and Drama League Awards, for her spellbinding creation of Fosca in Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s "Passion," which was filmed for PBS’ American Playhouse. She received her second Tony® Award, as well as a Drama League Award and Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations, for her “resplendent, matchless” (New York Post) performance as Anna Leonowens in the 1996 Tony® Award-winning revival of "The King and I." In 2004, she was honored with the Drama League Outstanding Achievement Award for her work in Musical Theater, the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Astaire Awards, as well as another Tony® nomination, for her hilarious comic tour de force as Ruth Sherwood in the Broadway Revival of "Wonderful Town." She returned to Broadway in 2007, receiving Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, and a Tony® nomination for her mesmerizing portrayal of the legendary actress-singer Lotte Lenya in "LoveMusik," directed by Harold Prince. Murphy’s first television film, HBO’s “Someone Had to be Benny,” earned her a Cable Ace Award as Best Actress in a Drama Special or Series, as well as a Daytime Emmy. Most recently, she starred as Jane Green, the matriarch of a prominent Southern family torn apart by the Civil War in PBS’ Mercy Street and guest starred on ABC’s hit show “Quantico” and CBS’ “Doubt” with Katherine Heigl and Laverne Cox. Other regular and recurring appearances include the mysterious “elegant woman” Angela Forrester in ABC’s “Resurrection,” Georgie on VH1’s “Hindsight,” Darlene Garretti on CBS’ “Made in Jersey” alongside Janet Montgomery and Kyle McLaughlin, the steely Denise Goodman on TNT’s “Trust Me” with Eric McCormack and Tom Cavanaugh, Heather Olshansky in CBS’ “Hack” opposite David Morse, and her critically acclaimed comedic performance as the neurotic psychiatrist Dr. Ruby Stern on ABC’s sitcom, “What About Joan,” starring Joan Cusack. For her contribution to the Arts, Culture and Public life, she’s received special honors from New York Magazine, Symphony Space, Greenwich Village’s Caring Community, the Women’s Project, The Little Orchestra Society, Irish America Magazine, the Breukelein Institute and Emerson College.
Playwright Alfred Uhry (1997 Tony Award winner for Best Play for “The Last Night of Ballyhoo”; 1999 Tony Award winner for Best Book of a Musical for “Parade”) recalls the original production of “Driving Miss Daisy” in 1987 at Playwrights Horizons, lists the actresses he's had the opportunity to see play the title role - based directly on his own grandmother - and discusses the cast of the play's Broadway premiere. He also talks about his Atlanta upbringing and being the beneficiary of his mother's love of the stage; moving to New York after graduating from Brown University and his apprenticeship under the great Frank Loesser; the Broadway musical he regularly leaves out of his bio and resume, which featured a book by another novice, Terrence McNally; the good fortune that smiled on “The Robber Bridegroom”, which featured Raul Julia, Kevin Kline and Barry Bostwick in successive New York incarnations; how the failure of his Al Capone musical “America's Sweetheart” led him to shift away from musicals towards playwriting with “Daisy”; drawing once again on his own family for “The Last Night of Ballyhoo”; collaborating with director Hal Prince and one living composer (Jason Robert Brown) and one deceased (Kurt Weill) for the musicals “Parade” and “LoveMusik”; and how his fact-based drama “Edgardo Mine” has now become “Divine Intervention”.
Playwright Alfred Uhry recalls the original production of "Driving Miss Daisy" in 1987 at Playwrights Horizons, lists the actresses he's had the opportunity to see play the title role - based directly on his own grandmother - and discusses the cast of the play's Broadway premiere. He also talks about his Atlanta upbringing and being the beneficiary of his mother's love of the stage; moving to New York after graduating from Brown University and his apprenticeship under the great Frank Loesser; the Broadway musical he regularly leaves out of his bio and resume, which featured a book by another novice, Terrence McNally; the good fortune that smiled on "The Robber Bridegroom", which featured Raul Julia, Kevin Kline and Barry Bostwick in successive New York incarnations; how the failure of his Al Capone musical "America's Sweetheart" led him to shift away from musicals towards playwriting with "Daisy"; drawing once again on his own family for "The Last Night of Ballyhoo"; collaborating with director Hal Prince and one living composer (Jason Robert Brown) and one deceased (Kurt Weill) for the musicals "Parade" and "LoveMusik"; and how his fact-based drama "Edgardo Mine" has now become "Divine Intervention". Original air date - October 13, 2010.
Playwright Alfred Uhry recalls the original production of "Driving Miss Daisy" in 1987 at Playwrights Horizons, lists the actresses he's had the opportunity to see play the title role - based directly on his own grandmother - and discusses the cast of the play's Broadway premiere. He also talks about his Atlanta upbringing and being the beneficiary of his mother's love of the stage; moving to New York after graduating from Brown University and his apprenticeship under the great Frank Loesser; the Broadway musical he regularly leaves out of his bio and resume, which featured a book by another novice, Terrence McNally; the good fortune that smiled on "The Robber Bridegroom", which featured Raul Julia, Kevin Kline and Barry Bostwick in successive New York incarnations; how the failure of his Al Capone musical "America's Sweetheart" led him to shift away from musicals towards playwriting with "Daisy"; drawing once again on his own family for "The Last Night of Ballyhoo"; collaborating with director Hal Prince and one living composer (Jason Robert Brown) and one deceased (Kurt Weill) for the musicals "Parade" and "LoveMusik"; and how his fact-based drama "Edgardo Mine" has now become "Divine Intervention". Original air date - October 13, 2010.
Music from new cast album releases including "Young Frankenstein" and "Lovemusik."
Broadway Bullet: Theatre from Broadway, Off-Broadway and beyond.
This week we have a super Tony Nominee special! We talk to Orfeh and hear the full song of "Ireland" from Legally Blonde. We talk to David Pittu of LoveMusik. We hear from Kevin Adams, nominated for lighting design for Spring Awakening, and Anna Louizos, nominated for set design for High Fidelity. Plus, Tony Nominated music from Curtains, Grey Gardens, Fantasia on the Tonys and more!