Last time, I spoke with writer Cheri Coons about the winding path of a busy writing career outside of New York. But I also wanted to get more of her perspective on the Chicago theater scene and whether the keys to her success there can be applied to other places as well. “Chicago is a […]
The post Beyond Broadway: Chicago Style appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
“This is just a strange sidebar story that you probably won’t ever have time to include in your written piece…”—Okay, you have to realize that I am now obligated to share this story. But what I love is that this story is a perfect example of the fairytale writing career that most of us dream […]
The post Beyond Broadway: Choose Your Own Adventure appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Let’s start with an exercise: I want you to think of the last time you saw a show and spent the last few minutes of the act planning how to beat the bathroom line. C’mon, no one’s going to judge you (they can’t actually read minds, you know). I bet you can still feel that throbbing […]
The post Press Play: The Convenience of Movie Musicals appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Don’t blame them for being confused. Over eight million people call New York City home, hustling and bustling on the island and in the surrounding boroughs day in and day out. But there is another population that makes up a large part of the city in fluctuating degrees throughout the year. We complain about them, […]
The post Wait… I’m Confused appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
What are the requisites to classify a dream as an impossible one? Is there a list somewhere? How do we know a dream is achievable, possible or impossible? There’s an old saying attributed to Mark Twain that says: “They did not know it was impossible, so they did it,” implying that your limitation lives in […]
The post The Impossible Dream appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Hal Prince was born on January 30th, 1928. He began as a producer on The Pajama Game and soon won Tony awards for his work on West Side Story and Damn Yankees, and he also produced the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fiorello!. Prince’s career as a director did not start until later and began with a series […]
The post Curtain Speech: Hal Prince appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
There are milestone shows in musical theater that we all mark as definitive. Give or take a show or two, most will tell you that certain shows land on that list. Show Boat, Oklahoma!, Fiddler On The Roof, Gypsy, West Side Story, A Chorus Line, Company, Rent and In The Heights are pretty safe bets. […]
The post Quiet Revolution: 5 Reflections on the Impact of ONCE appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
I remember the first time I heard Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner rip through “Who Will Love Me As I Am.” When I finally took a breath, I wanted to find out all I could. At the time, I didn’t know a thing about Side Show, the 1997 musical from which the song originated, but […]
The post Step Right Up: 5 Reasons It’s The Right Time For The Return Of SIDE SHOW appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
All theatre is community theatre. This is one of my favorite professor’s go-to phrases during class and one that has deeply resonated with me. I’ve had her for two semesters now so I can’t remember the first time I heard the phrase, but I do know that I immediately jotted it down on a piece […]
The post All Theatre is Community Theatre appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Many of us who have come to the piano as a primary instrument did so in a variety of ways. Some have been taking dedicated lessons since age 5; others have never taken a single one. Some were classically trained and others by ear. One thing we all learned at some point is that being […]
The post Delicate Dance: The Director and Developing The New Musical appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Before coming to college, I was afraid on how my little income would support my obsession of seeing shows. In high school, my parents were incredibly supportive of my appreciation for the arts and helped me out when needed. I love exposing myself to new shows and I did not want money to prevent me […]
The post Theatre on a Budget appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Nikki M. James, Keke Palmer, Norm Lewis, and Kyle Scatliffe all have one thing in common: they are people of color who are currently playing traditionally “white” roles on Broadway. Nikki M. James and Kyle Scatliffe play Eponine and Enjolras, respectively, in Les Miserables. Keke Palmer recently acquired the title role in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s […]
The post On Colorblind Casting and Diversity Onstage appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
I spend a lot of time with musical theatre writers. A LOT. And nothing could make me happier. To paraphrase Mary Flynn, “That’s what I wanna do, write! Oh, how does anybody write songs though? To me, that’s the gift of gifts.” As Director of Programming at 54 Below and as a Musical Theatre Historian, I feel very lucky […]
The post Richard Rodgers Was A New Musical Theatre Writer appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
(To begin this week, if you have not read the most recent article by Drew Gasparini and an archived favorite post by Georgia Stitt, do yourself a favor and read them – absorb them. There may be no more important message for new writers, theatre-goers, and artists of all types than these two pieces. They […]
The post Giving Them What They Want: Engaging Regional Theatres Before and After the Show appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
Like a lot of theatre people I know, I grew up on the Rogers and Hammerstein classics my parents would play on movie nights: South Pacific, The Sound of Music, Carousel, not to mention Cinderella staring Brandi (anyone else still obsessed with that classic?). But occasionally thrown in among the R+H oldies was the other […]
The post Writing Your Own Territory appeared first on The NewMusicalTheatre.com Green Room.
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.
