Fifty Key Stage Musicals: The Podcast is a supplement to the Routledge Press publication Fifty Key Stage Musicals. Each episode focuses on an iconic musical that altered the landscape of the genre and features interviews with theatre professionals and scholars. Hosts: Andrew Child and Robert W. Schneider.
https://www.routledge.com/Fifty-Key-Stage-Musicals/Schneider-Agnew/p/book/9780367444426
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 1 day 23 hours 46 minutes
episode 51: DEAR EVAN HANSEN
Frederick D. Miller explores the ways Dear Evan Hansen comments on a societal reliance on social media while existing in an industry increasingly dependent upon social media to profit and survive.
episode 50: HAMILTON
W. Jerome Stevenson argues Hamilton’s significance as a twenty-first century musical which was able to maintain mass appeal to the public amid a flurry of tourist-oriented Broadway productions
episode 49: FUN HOME
Courtney Laine-Self, who directed the regional premiere of Fun Home, examines the difficulties critics and audiences had categorizing this musical from its premiere as a musical based on an autobiographical graphic novel by Alison Bechdel while addressing the historical significance of its lesbian protagonist.
episode 48: NEXT TO NORMAL
Lyricist Brian Yorkey discusses the challenges in musicalizing mental health crises in Next to Normal.
episode 47: IN THE HEIGHTS
In the Heights was the first Broadway musical to rely on rap as its primary mode of storytelling.
episode 46: JERSEY BOYS
Rick Elice examines how contradicting stories from the three living band members lent the show a multi-perspective narrative frame.
episode 45: WICKED
Lauren Haughton makes the argument that the inclusion of screenwriter Winnie Holzman as the librettist for Wicked allowed the show to examine the relationships of adolescent girls in a uniquely authentic way, positing the musical as a pioneering exploration of feminine friendship.
episode 44: MAMMA MIA
Using the hits of Swedish pop group ABBA to tell a fictional story, Mamma Mia! was heralded as Broadway’s first mega-hit jukebox musical.
episode 43: THE PRODUCERS
Finding waning success in Hollywood, Mel Brooks was eventually convinced to adapt his Academy Award winning screenplay, The Producers, into a musical. Kasey RT Graham follows the ways Brooks, director Susan Stroman, and co-writer Thomas Meehan reinterpreted the cult classic film into a two act Broadway musical.