Remember when I said I was going to investigate “whether the numbers in which original, underdog musicals make it to Broadway are actually changing for the worse”? Well, I did, and I’m back to share some fascinating charts with you. In my last post on this topic, I was looking at data based on the […]
The post Recent Broadway Musical Trends, or Fun With Charts! appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Ever since I wrote my previous post on theater and rap, I’ve had song titles swirling around my head. I decided to put them all in an ordered, to get a more big-picture chronological view of musical theater rap through the years, and I thought I’d share that list with you. 1. “A Hymn to […]
The post 10 Musical Theater Rap Songs from the Last 58 Years appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the intersection of theater and rap. You might be surprised to hear this, if you know me in real life, because I don’t listen to popular rap at all or know very much about it. But the annals of theater news provide a long list of possible reasons […]
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Last week, in an attempt to make small talk, a visiting friend of my parents’ announced to me that as of this week, there would be no straight plays running on Broadway. Sounds crazy, right? First of all, it’s not so crazy. It has happened before, at least once in my lifetime and more than […]
The post No Plays on Broadway?: Why The Lack of Plays is Bad News for Musicals appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Hi, everybody! Lyric Lens is back! You know what else is back? Shaksepeare in the Park, and I’m so excited. Much Ado About Nothing is one of my favorite Shakespeare comedies, and the production photos look beautiful. I can’t wait to see it. Walking past the Delacorte the other day, I got to thinking about […]
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Last year my cousin Joseph, the other big theatre fan in our family, turned 16. As his self-proclaimed mentor and teacher of all things theatrical, I wanted to get him an amazing gift, and as it so happened, around that time the perfect thing fell into my lap. I was cleaning out my desk in […]
The post Growing Up Thespian in the Digital Age, or Why I Feel Old appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
The last three shows that I saw on Broadway, Violet, The Bridges of Madison County, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, have some interesting things in common. All three were produced on Broadway this season for the first time. All three feature daring and beautiful scores, written for the musical stage by important musical theatre […]
The post We Were That Kid: Tony Eligibility Rulings and Why They Matter appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Have you ever listened to a song over and over again because there was one line you just couldn’t quite hear? It’s happened to me more than once. Sometimes, it only takes a day or two of listening before I make out the words, but sometimes it takes a lot longer. I loved John Bucchino’s […]
The post Lyric Lens: “That Smile” by John Bucchino appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Welcome back to Lyric Lens! For the first edition back after a bit of a hiatus, I’ll be looking at a song called “52,” by Joe Iconis. This song is not yet for sale online, though a bunch of Joe’s other songs are, and hey, I can still hold out hope for the future. After […]
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A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine invited me to join her for lunch with two friends of hers I didn’t yet know. “They’re great. They’re musical theater people, too,” she said. “You’ll like them.” When I showed up at the restaurant, I discovered that one of the mysterious musical theater people was […]
The post Lyric Lens: “I Don’t Wanna Lie” by Alexander Sage Oyen appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
A few nights ago, at a birthday party, I solicited suggestions from friends for what song I should feature in the next installment of Lyric Lens. “Why don’t you do a post that looks more at the big picture of lyrics?” suggested one friend. As much as I love thinking about the big picture, that’s […]
The post Lyric Lens: “Leave Luanne” by Ryan Scott Oliver appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
This week, I’ve been working on revising a lyric of my own about a character whose town is threatened by a hurricane. In the process, I’ve been thinking a lot about another musical that tells the story of a natural disaster, Peter Mills and Cara Reichel’s The Flood. Pete and Cara happen to be graduates […]
The post Lyric Lens: “It’s Amazing the Things That Float” appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
When I was in ninth grade, my friend Rachel and I went to Sutton Foster’s first-ever solo concert, a part of the 2004 American Songbook series. It was also the first solo concert we had ever been to. It was a great evening, and we heard lots of wonderful songs, but one of the ones […]
The post Lyric Lens(ish): “Beautiful You” by Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Gather around everyone, it’s story time! Well, story song time. A little while back, my good friend Hannah Ehrenberg wrote a fabulous post on story songs, and I’ve been thinking about them ever since. One of my favorites is a song by Jeff Blumenkrantz called “My Heart Was Set on You.” Sutton Foster sings this […]
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For this installment of Lyric Lens, I knew I wanted to examine the way that Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk capture the voices of children in their writing. Of course, there are many great songs for kid characters in their show Henry and Mudge. The one most people probably know best is “My Party Dress,” […]
The post Lyric Lens: “I’m Sorry” by Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Welcome to Lyric Lens, a series of posts where I take a close look at some of my favorite lyrics, and the tiny details that I think make them so great. Since it was Adam Gwon’s Lyric Writing class that inspired this series, what better song to start with than one of Adam’s? I’ve chosen […]
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