We discuss the new Australian musical Ladies in Black(with a score by Tim Finn), just in time for it’s return to the stage in a new tour with most of its wonderful original cast. Then we’re joined by the hilarious Jocelyn Seip of Follow Sports Like A Girl podcast to cover the Hugh Jackman Broadway to Ozarena spectacular to find out just how camp it all got (very). Finally we have a chat about the exciting The Fortress of Solitudecast recording!
We’re back – again! We saw the new Australian show GEORGY GIRL- THE SEEKERS MUSICAL, which we found a surprisingly pleasant experience! Tyson saw some Melbourne Theatre Company plays, LUNGS by Duncan MacMillan and THE DISTANCE by Deborah Bruce, the latter featuring two excellent performances by Katrina Milosevic and Nadine Garner. We have a visit from Margaret Paul, who went down to the junkyard to review the revival of CATS. Some general discussion regarding the weirdness of CATS follows, and Maggie gives her verdict on the new Rum Tum Tugger aka ‘rappy cat’ (thumbs down) and Delta as Grizabella (look, she tried). Then it’s time for Tyson to geek out over one of his obscure guilty pleasures, the cast recording of THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE GOES PUBLIC, while Jelly discusses the recording of the show that got her hooked on musicals, the 1989 Australian production of ANYTHING GOES.
Note: yes, Jelly does repeatedly refer to the cast recording as a ‘soundtrack’. Deal with it.
Omg, we’re back. Tyson gives Jelly a present (imported with a little help from Nikka Graff Lanzarone from The Ensemblist podcast). We talk briefly about Hamilton and The Wiz Live, proving that we have nothing of value to add to the conversation about either of those topics.Then we reflect a little on the year that was 2015 locally. Audra McDonald visited and was glorious – but did the audience behave themselves during her concert? We saw The Rocky Horror Show starring Craig McLachlan and discuss the vibe of this current iteration; Tyson talks a bit about Richard O’Brien and the recent history of the show.
You may have noticed that the Tonys have come and gone! But we’re sure you’ll enjoy our discussion of the nominations regardless. Let’s face it, no one comes to us for news. We run through the noms from top to bottom.
Then, in a Very Special Episode, we watched the 2008 Live from Lincoln Center production of Camelot, directed by Lonnie Price, starring Gabriel Byrne, Nathan Gunn, Marin Mazzie, Bobby Steggart, Fran Drescher and more. Oh, so much more. This might be one of the most alarming pieces of theatre ever produced.
If you want to skip past our Tony Nominations talk, jump in at 31:00.
In this episode, Tyson reports back on 3 small-scale shows he saw in NYC, and we have a good time chatting about how we’d cast a hypothetical concert of our current favorite Broadway leading ladies.
But first, Disaster! Tyson was lucky enough to see a recent Actors Fund benefit concert of this fun Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnik show and especially enjoyed with Jennifer Simard’s hilarious performance.
Our third show is Andrew Lippa and Tom Greenwald’s musical John and Jen, which had a recent production by the Keen Company, starring Conor Ryan and the glorious Kate Baldwin.
Then it’s hypothetical time. We recently strolled down memory lane to enjoy the Divafest and 90s fashion extravaganza that was the 1998 My Favorite Broadway: Leading Ladies concert featuring Liza, Marin Mazzie and baby Anna Kendrick among others. We imagine who would be awesome in a modern version of such an event and choose songs for them to sing. Tyson reveals his amazing vision for a gender-flipped production of Camelot.