ON BROADWAY

On this week’s episode of On Broadway, I chat with Adam Gwon, an American composer and lyricist. He made his off-Broadway debut in 2009 with Ordinary Days. He has written eight other musicals that have premiered Off-Broadway and at major regional theaters across the country. Gwon has been a recipient of the Fred Ebb Foundation Award, presented to aspiring composer/lyricists, as well as the Kleban Prize for most promising musical theater lyricist.

On this week’s episode of On Broadway, I chat with Adam Gwon, an American composer and lyricist. He made his off-Broadway debut in 2009 with Ordinary Days. He has written eight other musicals that have premiered Off-Broadway and at major regional theaters across the country. Gwon has been a recipient of the Fred Ebb Foundation Award, presented to aspiring composer/lyricists, as well as the Kleban Prize for most promising musical theater lyricist. In addition to talking about his career, we will discuss his latest musical, All the World's a Stage and play selections from the show.

This week I speak with the composing team of Tom James McGrath and Amy Clare Tasker about their new musical Rising. Songs from the show are incorporated into the episode. Rising reimagines the 1916 Dublin rebellion through the inner life of Patrick Pearse, its most enigmatic leader. As he leads the charge against the British Empire, Patrick must reconcile his public role with the private self he has kept hidden – his queerness, his sensitivity, and his doubts. Fighting alongside him are a community of eccentrics: artists, bookworms, socialists and socialites. Together, they form not just a revolutionary force, but a chosen family.

I speak to Nicholas Brown-Cáceres, acting chief of the Music Division, and Cait Miller, senior music reference specialist, at the Library of Congress. They talk about Inside the Vault, a collaborative, interactive and virtual exhibit that will be accompanying the national tour of The Sound of Music.

On this episode of On Broadway, I speak with Amnon Kabatchnik, the author of the book, Bloody Broadway – Plays of Menace, Murder, and Mystery – Volume 1 900-1930. The book’s entries are presented chronologically and include a plot synopsis, production data, opinions by critics, and biographical sketches of playwrights and key actors-directors.

This week I speak with Frank Verlizzo, on his first book of the Retro Broadway Mystery Series – Scenery of the Crime. Before becoming an author, Frank Verlizzo was a legendary graphic designer, the man behind such iconic poster art as the original Broadway productions of Disney's The Lion King; Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George, and Ira Levin's Deathtrap.

I speak with actress and cabaret performer Klea Blackhurst, who will be starring in the new Off-Broadway musical, Just Desserts: A Musical Bake-Off. The show opens at the AMT Theater (354 West 45th Street) beginning January 30 and running through February 22. Her podcast episode will available by Friday, January 23.

On this episode of On Broadway, I speak with Henry H. Sapoznik, a Peabody Award-winning coproducer of NPR's Yiddish Radio Project, about his book - The Tourist's Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City. The book offers a new look at over a century of New York's history of Yiddish popular culture, telling the story in over a baker's dozen chapters on theater, music, architecture, crime, Blacks and Jews, restaurants, real estate, and journalism. For the podcast, we focus on the chapter about the Yiddish theater.

I speak with David Armstrong, an American stage director, writer, producer, podcaster, and educator, about his book, The Broadway Musical: How Immigrants, Jews, Queers and African-Americans Invented America's Signature Art Form. "A groundbreaking exploration that reveals the powerful impact of marginalized groups on the evolution of the Broadway Musical."

I interview Rupert Holmes, known for his Tony Award-winning musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I spoke to him, primarily, on his adaptation of the Gilbert and Sullivan musical, The Pirates of Penzance. Retitled Pirates!, the reimaged production, which played last year on Broadway, has the setting now in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The show infuses the score with jazz, Caribbean, and blues influences.

We welcome back Sondheim scholar Rick Pender, who talks about his new book, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: Behind the Bloody Musical Masterpiece. "An award-winning Sondheim expert dives into all facets of this unique, murder-filled masterpiece-its slimy roots, original production, characters from killers to lovers to bakers, soaring score, gripping storytelling, and lasting power."

I speak with Frankie Dailey, the New Works Director at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre. The organization’s 37th Annual Festival of New Musicals will take place on October 23-24, 2025 at New World Stages in New York City. The Festival features eight new musicals in 45-minute staged reading presentations in front of an industry-only audience. This event brings together theatre producers, presenters and developers from around the world to celebrate the future of these promising new musicals!

I speak with Rob Ruggiero, the Artistic Director of TheaterWorks Hartford, who is directing the 50th anniversary production of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning musical, A Chorus Line, at the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Ct.

I chat with Mike Hadge - comedy writer, content creator, producer and songwriter - about his musical Doofyland, where he wrote the book, music and lyrics. A brief description of the show: DoofyLand is a bawdy musical satire that explores how easily our happy place can become a cage and how its up to us to truly “embrace the enchanthood.” Featuring a score that echoes classic Disney composers with a pop-rock sprinkling.

I speak with Jeffrey Seller about his memoir Theater Kid, which is a coming-of-age tale from the most successful American producer of our time. He is one of the masterminds behind the Tony Award winning musicals Rent, Avenue Q, In the Heights, and Hamilton.

A rollicking conversation with the composing team behind the current Broadway hit, Dead Outlaw - David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna. The two, life-long friends, engage in an entertaining and revealing discussion about the show and musical theater in general.

I interview with Daniel Jenkins (Big River, Big – the Musical), who is appearing in the new Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire revue, About Time. About Time, which runs at Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theater in Chester, CT from May 24 - Jun 15, 2025, is the third revue created by the composing team. Here is a brief description of the show: From long-ago love affairs and ambitions of the past to tech-savvy grandkids and lost keys, this funny and touching revue features all new songs about people navigating the joys and challenges of growing older while staying young in spirit.

I interview John Yun, who is currently the music director for the Broadway production of Maybe Happy Ending. We talk about this multi-Tony Award nominated musical. John has served as the associate conductor for the Broadway production of Hell’s Kitchen – The Alicia Keys musical, the associate music director for Broadway productions of Bob Fosse’s Dancin’, as well as Tina: the Tina Turner Musical.

In this week’s episode of On Broadway, I speak with James Magruder, author of the new book, The Play's the Thing : Fifty Years of Yale Repertory Theatre (1966-2016). The book’s four chapters are dedicated to one of the Yale Rep’s artistic directors to date: Robert Brustein, Lloyd Richards,Stan Wojewodski Jr., and James Bundy. Numerous sidebars—dedicated to the spaces used by the theater, the playwrights produced most often, casting, the prop shop, the costume shop, artist housing, and other topics—enliven the lavishly illustrated four-color text. The work is enlivened by interviews with some of America’s most respected actors about their experiences at the Rep, including Paul Giamatti, James Earl Jones, Frances McDormand, Meryl Streep, Courtney B. Vance, Dianne Wiest, and Henry Winkler.

I speak withTed Vives, who has written the score and book to a musical entitled Scientific Method. The show is unproduced, but did recently receive an honorable mention by the American Prize for Excellence in the Arts. We chat about the genesis of the musical, its plot and structure and hear a few songs from the show. For information about Scientific Method and to hear more songs from the score, go to: scientificmethod.godaddysites.com