Chasing Phantom

Send us Fan Mail Hey there, Chasing Phantom phans! We're taking a little break this week from chasing after all that theater-related historical yumminess in order to introduce you to a brand spanking new podcast, Didn't Read It! Grace Todd, our podcast partner for Convince Me I Care , has embarked on this new adventure and we're very excited to get her expert's perspective on b...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to the wacky 1950s! It may be a little mind-boggling that a show so prominently featuring an actor in yellowface ran longer on Broadway than beloved classics like "Grand Hotel" and "Damn Yankees!" But the 50s were an ... "interesting" ... time and, for all its downsides, this is a show that had some surprisingly progressive elements. The...

Send us Fan Mail The first revival on the list also happens to be my personal favorite show of all time. In honor of the occasion, I have invited a panel of Les Mis experts to talk about the differences between the stage production and the movie, how perceptions of Les Miserables can change over a fan's life, and how children take in (or don't) the complex moral framework of the show. Th...

Send us Fan Mail In honor of Independence Day, we talk about a show that is as All-American as apple pie, featuring America's favorite pastime: selling your soul to the devil. No, no, no -- I mean, baseball! Through the magic of Zoom, the amazing and talented actress, director and producer Dawn Westbrook joins the pod to talk about bringing Lola to life, a role that some folks still remember...

Send us Fan Mail It is classic, quintessential Broadway: the Tommy Tune directed musical, "Grand Hotel." Strangers intersect in a hotel in 1930s Berlin with passion, crime and redemption the natural results, not to mention some snappy tunes and crowds of dancers choreographed to within an inch of their lives. And as the perfect companion on the voyage, my guest is classic and quintessent...

Send us Fan Mail "Contact" was such an anomaly on Broadway that it inspired a new Tony Award category: Best Special Theatrical Event. It was a musical with pre-recorded music and a play with almost no dialogue. The producers called it a "dance play" and there's really been nothing like it since. I explore the history and ramifications of this fascinating one-off with Julin...

Send us Fan Mail How do you avoid talking about a dreadful show? You invite on a delightful guest! The so-called comedy, "Never Too Late," was a play that ran for an unbelievable 1,007 performances back in the early 1960s, remarkable given the lack of any discernible jokes. My pal, Jesse Rabinowitz, Ph. D., who has forgotten more about old movies than I will ever know, takes what could h...

Send us Fan Mail How the hell did they get away with this? Join me with a only slightly legalistic consideration of what they were thinking when they made "Beatlemania." It opened in 1977 when sadness about the supergroup's breakup was still running high. Not really a musical, the tribute concert was more a multimedia trip through the 1960s. My not-a-lawyer best pal, Randy Evans, ch...

Send us Fan Mail Join Chasing Phantom for a rollicking ride down "Big River," the 1985 musical based on Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" that ran for 1,005 performances. My buddy, Christopher Haushalter, and I rave about Roger Miller's score, consider whether it's a show that requires racial recontextualization, and remember when John Goodman was...

Send us Fan Mail In the inaugural episode of "Chasing Phantom," I review and reflect on "Newsies," the Disney screen-to-stage adaptation that ran for 1,004 performances. I am joined by Dr. Caroline Weist, a professor at University of Richmond, who augments her "Newsies" fandom with insightful commentary on the differences between the movie and stage versions of the st...

Send us Fan Mail On April 16th, 2023, the historic run of "Phantom of the Opera" on Broadway will end just shy of 14,000 performances. While the next closest show will need to run at least 9 more years to catch it, the door is now open for some other production to eventually surpass this incredible number. "Chasing Phantom" will look at those contenders, in addition to the more...