So Much Stuff to Sing

We're talking  The Frogs , perhaps the ultimate curio in the Sondheim canon. Originally staged at Yale as a side project during Sondheim's golden 70s, the show was eventually brought to Broadway in 2004 -- still the most recent Broadway debut for Sondheim -- by Nathan Lane, who expanded the original version and got Steve to write some new songs. Now a more recognizable work -- though still an off-...

Moving on with Sondheim B-Sides, we come to his very next show after Forum , namely the complete catastrophe that was  Anyone Can Whistle . Co-written with Arthur Laurents, who also directed, the show was a massive flop, but it did give the world Broadway star Angela Lansbury, as well as an incredicle score. In this episode, we look at "With So Little To Be Sure Of," but not how it is in the show,...

It is our annual tribuite to the God of Musical Theater, Stephen Sondheim, and for this year's festival we are exploring some songs of his from the shows that people rarely place among their favorites. The unloved, the ignored, the obscure, and the forgotten. Or, in this case, a show that many know, but doesn't tend to get thought of as a "Sondheim" show. It's time for a song from his first produc...

Okay, don't panic! No, you've probably never heard of this song "The Field" -- or maybe even this show -- Octet --  but what if I told you it was Dave Malloy's follow up to  The Great Comet?  And then what if I told you it was a weird chamber musical about internet addiction? Well, maybe listen to the episode anyway, and join us as we discuss the nature of Art, whether the internet is bad, and the...

Our next ensemble song takes us to 1890s Germany via Broadway in 2006.  Spring Awakening , with book and lyrics by Steven Sater and music by rocker Duncan Sheik, is based on an 1891 German play that explores many of the worst things that can occur to a person, especially during adolescence. Winner of 8 Tonys, the show speaks frankly about sexuality, abuse, and mental health, and while "The Song of...

What's that I hear? Why, it's another ensemble song...but this one...is angry! Yes, for our next installement in our Ensemble Song miniseries, we're discussing "Do You Hear the People Sing?" from  Les Miserables , by Claude-Michel Schoenberg, Alain Bubil, and Herbert Kretzmer. Opening in 1985 under the auspices of the Royal Shakespeare Company, the song has been a global phenomenon for 40 years. B...

Time for another year and another new mini-series! This time, we're turning our spotlight onto the ensemble. From the Greek chorus to the modern Broadway ensemble, the act of a group of people singing together has often been a crucial part of theater. While we're not going to go all the way back to Ancient Greece, we are going to look at 4 examples of choral numbers in shows and the effect they ha...

For our holiday episode, we're turning our sights to a song written for television for the first time. This fall the internet went mad for a song with ample Broadway cred -- "The Ballad of the Witches' Road" from  Agatha All Along . Let's talk about what made it such a hit, about its songwriters -- the formidable Bobby & Kristen Anderson Lopez -- and about Patti Lupone, of course. All clips are fr...

After 20 years, there's finally an Elphaba on screen, and we're going to finish our Elphabae miniseries by talking about her. Buckle up as we talk  Wicked the movie (Part 1), whther Cynthia Erivo will break "the Curse of the Elphabae," and what is either just a mid or a Top 10 "I want" song (depending on which cohost you are) -- "The Wizard and I."  All clips are from  Wicked: The Soundtrack featu...

We're back with another Elphaba, and this time they're singing a role essentially built for them! Except...well...join us as we talk the great Eden Espinosa and the show that maybe doesn't rise to her level: 2024's Lempicka . Written by Matt Gould and Carson Kreitzer, the show underwent a long workshop process before an ultiamtely unsuccessful Broadway run. We explore what went wrong, in our opini...

Another episode, another Elphaba! This time, we're looking at Shoshana Bean, who was an Elphaba early on before leaving Broadway for over a decade and then finally returning to a string of well-received roles, even if she still hasn't found The One. Here she is singing one of the songs that brough her back, "Stars and the Moon" by Jason Robert Brown from his song cycle  Songs for a New World . Enj...

New miniseries time! This time, we're taking a slightly different approach, focusing on a set of linked performers instead of a set of linked songs. Specifically, we're looking at some of the women who've played the original Green Girl, Elphaba from Wicked . First up is Stephanie J. Block who arguably  was the original Elphaba, just not on Broadway. We look at her career and why it hasn't been qui...

Once again, we find ourselves back at Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 , the show that we just can't escape, nor would we wish to. This time, we're finishing our miniseries on Second Act Openers with the excellent "Letters," where Dave Malloy crams so much content into only 6 minutes that we're almost left a little speechless. Almost.  All clips are from the 2013 Original Cast Recordin...

Newsies!  Yes, at long last, we are talking about one of the most beloved musicals ever to starts as a failed Disney movie. With music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Jack Feldman,  Newsies could easily have just been a misbegotten offshoot of the Disney Renaissance, but it experienced a rebirth of its own, hitting Broadway in 2012. Join us as we talk about the process and about "King of New York," t...

We're back with another second act opener! This one combines impressive spectacle, plot recap, and a flexible yet catchy tune to ease the audience back into a world of high romance and melodrama. Join us as we discuss "Masquerade" from The Phantom of the Opera and how it does what it does very, very well. All clips are from the 1987 London Cast Album of  Phantom of the Opera and are protected by t...

As we begin our second hundred episodes, it's only fitting that we turn our attention to second-act openers. These songs often have to return the audience to the world of the show quickly and recast the spell the first act had woven. So, how do you do that? One answer is to give them a song and dance for the ages: this week we talk about "Who's Got the Pain?" from  Damn Yankees , written by Adler...

We conclude our 100th episode spectacular with 5 more songs that make us love the American musical. As a reminder, please email or message us with the 5 songs you would choose so we can make a Spotify playlist to share with everyone! STOP READING to avoid getting spoiled for what's on this episode.  All clips are from, in order, Follies: New Broadway Cast Recording , Hamilton: An American Musical...

Yes, there are now 100 episodes of Shannon in New York City and Erik in Prague discussing the American Musical. To celebrate, we decided to each compile a list of 5 songs that, for us, represent what makes the musical the wonderful art form it is. The musical can do things that nothing else -- no other art form -- can do, and we think these songs illustrate that. In this episode, we discuss the fi...

We come to the conclusion of our miniseries of anthems, and we've saved one of the best for last. We're talking "I Am What I Am" from  La Cage aux Folles , with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, which became an anthem for LGBTQ Pride almost as soon as it was first sung in 1983. All clips are from 2016's Trailblazer Honors events featuring Ginger Minj and are protected by the Fair Use guidelines of...

From the hard work and determination of show business to the let it all hang out and just be spirirt of the hippie movement, our anthem series continues with "Aquarius" from  Hair . Written by James Rado, Gerome Ragni, and Galt MacDermot, "Aquarius" become synonymous with the hippie movement with an assist from The Fifth Dimension. Be prepared for lots of talk of very bad astrology! All clips are...

Anthem number two! This time, we're looking at an anthem for this business we call show: "There's No Business Like Show Business," written by Irving Berling for 1946's Annie Get Your Gun . While that's still a popular show, the song has definitely broken free and is now widely recognized as perhaps the definitive song about the ups and downs of a life lived on the stage. For this episode, we'll be...

Time for a new miniseries! This time, we're looking at songs originally from Broadway shows that found a greater life outside of them as anthems. Anthems of movements, times, places, industries -- Broadway has given us many anthems over the years. Arguably one of its earliest is one that everyone knows but may not know that it originated in a Broadway show: "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" by Y.E....

Well, it's that time again -- time to say goodbye to Sondheim for another year. But we're going out with a wide-ranging and multi-faceted discussion of all things  Merrily We Roll Along centered around one of the only purely happy songs in the show: "It's a Hit." All clips are from 1982's Merrily We Roll Along: Original Broadway Cast Recording featuring Lonny Price as Charley Kringas, Jim Walton a...

For the first time in over 4 years and 90 episodes (!), we return to  Merrily We Roll Along , Sondheim's greatest flop and now one of the biggest hits on Broadway. We'll looking at  Merrily for our next two episodes, actually, since it has multiple songs that fit this miniseries quite nicely. First up, we have the Act 1 closing number, "Now You Know." All clips are from 2023's Merrily We Roll Alon...

We're continuing our miniseries on Sondheim's conversation songs. This episode, we ask a very simple question: can a song simulataneously be about absolutely nothing and abosolutely everything? And we answer it with a resounding, "Yes," -- at least it can if the song is question is "Someone in a Tree" from Pacific Overtures . Join us as we try to pick apart the strands of this masterpiece and disc...