MusicalTalk - The UK's Independent Musical Theatre Podcast

Thos sits down with Harry Downes and Ellis Dackombe, the impressive stars of the national tour of award-winning musical, Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story, to discuss the background and craft required to bring dark and thrilling show to life.  Based on a famous murder case of the 1920s, learn how the show is designed to hurtle along at breakneck pace and how to make social transgression dramat...

Nick and Dom discuss Brief Encounter now playing at the Empire Cinema in the West End, and Nick chats to Hamilton's orchestrator, arranger, music supervisor and all-round music guy - Alex Lacamoire.

Prior to its much anticipated arrival in London, Thos sits down for a wonderful chat with the talented writers of hit Edinburgh Fringe show, Buried - winner of the NSDF Award 2017, as well as MusicalTalk's own silver medallist Pick of the Fringe for last year, to discuss this magnificent, dark and macabre musical comedy.  Hear songs and stories from this tale with a twist.  And talking of the Frin...

Michael Billington recently said of Andrew Lloyd Webber: "For all his attempts to encourage new talent, he also looks like a swimming instructor in a largely empty pool. Stiles and Drewe are the only team to have left their imprint on the British musical post-Lloyd Webber". Nick and composer, book-writer, translator, director and orator - Jeremy Sams - as they discuss this statement travel on a wo...

Join Nick and YouTube musician Kevin Lynch as they discuss such varied topics as Spongebob Square Pants' Broadway outing, Dear Even Hansen, Billy Joel's Movin' Out, EmojiLand and the importance of singers being able to look at music and understand it! It's a fun, raucous and - at times - foul-language ridden discussion. But what else would you expect from YouTube's angriest musical theatre fan?!

Nick and Thos discuss last year's Dick Whittington (for the last time!) and then delve deep into the perhaps overhyped attitude of Hamilton, and then analyse Annie and work out why it's an under-appreciated masterpiece... all returning back to pantomime via Cole Porter!

Thos sits down with up-and-coming composer and lyricist, Colm Molloy, to discuss the intricacies of Sondheim, the eccentricities of Rogers and Hammerstein's Allegro and complexities of being a modern composer writing for the theatre. You'll touch on creative manifestos, windy parks, female suffrage, and much much more, in this delightful conversation about musical theatre in its widest sense

Music!  Mystery!  Morlocks!  It's 1959, the golden age of science fiction, and a mysterious man arrives at Radio Woking to present a thrilling musical adaptation of HG Wells' classic story, the Time Machine.  So join Thos as he talks to writers and performers, Laurence Owen and Lindsay Sharman, about this show which was one of the hits of last year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.   It's a musical adv...

Thos sits down with award winning cabaret duo, The House of Blakewell, alias Alice Keedwell and Harry Blake to discuss their latest cabaret musical, I Have A Bad Feeling About This, which premieres soon at the Vault Festival in Waterloo as well as their new fully-fledged musical, Thor + Loki.  So what's the difference between musical theatre and cabaret narrative?  Well, find out in this song fill...

And for Thos, it was! It's time to learn more about this wonderful American musical which deserves to be much better well known world-wide as Thos talks to the director of a recent excellent Fringe production. Its title might lose points for bad English usage, but it wins them all back again with a top notch book and score.  And if you've ever wondered what Americans do with panini at weddings, th...

The writer-composer team — a.k.a. Noisemaker — discuss, with Michael Gordon Shapiro, their musical "Atlantic: A Scottish Story", their collaborative process, and the fulfillment-versus-security tradeoff of the creative life.

In this week's episode we discuss two musicals that use modern music to tell the story of historical figures. First Nick and David talk The Greatest Showman (a pop musical that focuses on Barnum) and then Nick, Tonia and Mike discuss their views on Hamilton in detail; is it the greatest show ever? Find out!

Robert tells Nick of his highlights for 2017 including Follies, The Grinning Man, Everybody's Talking about Jamie - with light touches on The Greatest Showman and Dick Whittington.

It's time to see in the new year with the now obligatory MusicalTalk festive period quiz – a merry mix of quirky questions and superb songs, all helpfully hosted by that ignorant idiot, thoolish (sic) Thos!   If the rest of the year proves this much fun, we are all in for a wonderful twelve months.  (small print: past fun in quizzes is no guide to future enjoyment)

Tonia and Nick delve into some of 2018's new shows in London and Broadway. Nick then shares his tips for ensuring you don't always have to pay staggering amounts of money for shows. Then we look into how we'd like to see tech influence the ticket purchasing process a bit more! Contains strong language.

Join Nick and Tonia as they discuss the big shows of 2017 including 42nd Street, Hamilton, An American in Paris, Follies, Pinocchio, On the Town, The Addams Family and many others.

Thos talks to Eitan and Luis about their interest in musical theatre, and their thoughts on the recent crop of West End shows including Les Mis, the misogyny of Dogfight, the mischief of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the mis-step of Carousel and the hit and miss Miss Saigon!

Join Dom and Thos as they follow their muse for a marvellous musical theatre meander, encompassing everything from Florodora to South Pacific by way of some obscure television musicals, Follies, Salad Days, Hellzapoppin' and Little Mary Sunshine to name but a few.  And with people such as Noel Coward, George Edwardes, Ada Reeve, Tessie O'Shea, Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare, it's the epis...

Meet me inside the room where it happens as you join Nick, Mike Shapiro and Tonia as they discuss Hamilton opening in London. That would be enough, but you can then join David Herzog as he talks to musical theatre star Jon Peterson! It's a Non-Stop Trans-Atlantic special! We know you'll be back!

Tim and Thos sit down to discuss two very different shows from the late 1970s - the greatest of the Lloyd Webber and Rice collaborations, Evita, and a modern Marx Brothers concoction, a Night in the Ukraine by Frank Lazarus and the much lamented Dick Vosburgh – it's all the fun of the circus from Che to Chekov!

Following it rare recent professional production in London, Tim and Thos cast their eyes over the evergreen How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and look at it through the prism of sexual and gender politics, whilst still finding time to admire the score and some exquisite 1960s tailoring!  An irresistible charis(matic) original indeed!

Once upon a time, Nick saw a musical of Peter Pan at the Cambridge Theatre starring Ron Moody. This musical was written by composer, lyricist and bookwriter - Piers Chater-Robinson. Hear how this musical, originally written for a school, started out and made its way to the West End... whilst being published all over the world.

It's time for more Edinburgh Festival Fringe insights from Thos and Michael Gordon Shapiro, the noted composer, as they look into a number of very successful shows including the Toxic Avenger, Thrill Me, the Time Machine, Forgive Me, Oh Father and Stop the Musical.  They also discuss the usefulness (or otherwise) of topicality to a show-writer.  All this and a song from Michael's wonderful show, T...

It's time for another Fringe Round Up Time – so join Thos and noted composer, Michael Gordon Shapiro, for the next couple of weeks as they talk about some more of the best shows at his years Edinburgh Festival Fringe.  And in today's episode they tackle Into the Woods, Atlantic – A Scottish Story, It Shoulda Been You and Buried!  And there's music from Super Sidekick: The Musical.

Dom and Robert are let off the lead by Nick and are allowed to talk to their heart's content about the more un-known shows of Kander and Ebb including The Rink, The Visit, Zorba and Woman of the Year.