Rob was the founding editor-in-chief of Back Stage West & is the editor-in-chief of American Theatre magazine. And he’s here for the only Off-Broadway show to win a Tony Award.
Topics include: psuedo-Marxist propaganda, in rep with The Fantasticks, Gilbert & Sullivan, Double-LP German recordings, Domar Warehouse, how existence is a female dog and then one perishes, and the vocal stylings of Dame Bea Arthur.
Featured recordings: The Threepenny Opera - The Complete Score (1954) • Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill - Hal Willner (1985) • The Threepenny Opera - Original Cast Recording (1994) • Die Dreigroschenoper - Columbia Masterworks (1958) • Mame - Original Broadway Cast (1966)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where 2023 is THE YEAR OF BARBRA celebrating the filmography of Ms. Barbra Joan Streisand!
Kaiya is a civil rights lawyer and a lifelong thespian who uses her legal expertise to empower theatre community members to stand up for their rights and create truly safe and equitable spaces. And she is here with a greatest hits/concept/song collection that helped get her through college.
Topics include: everything everywhere all at once, Kickstarter, Melancholy of being in your 20s, Amicus Briefs, the ouroboros of law and culture, Shucked, Bad Cinderella (for, like, a while), and being a lawyer with a passion for theatre.
YouTube: Are Kerrigan & Lowdermilk Breaking Up?!? | From B | [Bree] Lowdermilk
Featured recordings: Our First Mistake - Kerrigan-Lowdermilk (2011)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where 2023 is THE YEAR OF BARBRA celebrating the filmography of Ms. Barbra Joan Streisand!
It’s Steve’s birthday! And Rob is back to talk to us about a 30-year-old concert that has the best hair, goofiest sleeves, and ALLLLLLLL the Liza Minnelli you could dream for.
Topics include: The Tonics, wearing upholstery, The Tonics’s vocal arrangements, the ’87 Tonys, The Tonics’s full discography, Karen Ziemba killing it, and The Tonics (mostly we just talk about The Tonics).
Featured recordings: Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall (1992) • Unsung Sondheim (1993) • Sondheim: A Celebration (1997)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where 2023 is THE YEAR OF BARBRA celebrating the filmography of Ms. Barbra Joan Streisand!
Liz is an actor, writer, and musical theatre kid from way back. And she’s here with a show that is possibly more relevant now than when it debuted.
Topics include: going into the City by yourself when you’re 13, Little Sally, Urinetown the place, transferring at Jamaica, Brechtian (in the true sense), and is this show ahead of its time?
Featured recordings: Urinetown the Musical - The Original Cast Recording (2001) • Songs in the Key of Springfield - The Simpsons (1997)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where 2023 is THE YEAR OF BARBRA celebrating the filmography of Ms. Barbra Joan Streisand!
Jack is an Award-Winning American playwright, actor, musician, and teacher and he’s here with a show that is certainly in the running for the title of THE quintessential American musical.
Topics include: Proto-Fonzi, the first time someone treats you like you’re cool, thinking of yourself as a musician, Henry V, and failing better.
New Normal Rep Dot Org / bonus password “NNR2022”
Featured recordings: Guys and Dolls - A Decca Original Cast Album (1950)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where 2023 is THE YEAR OF BARBRA celebrating the filmography of Ms. Barbra Joan Streisand!
Debra is the author of the new biography Robert Preston: Forever the Music Man. And she’s here to talk about Preston’s most famous flop from the team that brought you Hello, Dolly!.
Topics include: working actors, voicemails from Rosemary Harris, journalism, Robert Preston not getting cast in things over and over again, and Christopher Walken.
Buy Robert Preston: Forever the Music Man!
Featured recordings: Mack & Mabel - Original Cast Recording (1974) • The Music Man - Original Broadway Cast (1957) • Mame - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1974)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where 2023 is THE YEAR OF BARBRA celebrating the filmography of Ms. Barbra Joan Streisand!
Actor/singer Sean Patrick Murtagh, whom you may know from Green Room 42 and/or his new album The Mario 101, is here for the album that he describes as: “the album that made [him] gay.”
Topics include: moonlight on the bed, Linda Eder as diva, local gays, Linda Eder as instrument, formulas, Linda Eder as gateway drug, the heart and soul of why we do it, Linda Eder’s placement, and Linda Eder’s vowels.
Sean Patrick’s album The Mario 101
Featured recordings: The Scarlet Pimpernel - A Romantic Musical Adventure (1992) • Jekyll & Hyde - The Complete Work (1995) • The Scarlet Pimpernel - Original Broadway Cast Recording (1997) • The Mario 101 - Sean Patrick Murtagh (2022)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where 2023 is THE YEAR OF BARBRA celebrating the filmography of Ms. Barbra Joan Streisand!
Shoshana is a dramatist, journalist, and host of the Scene to Song podcast. And she’s here to talk about a show that (at one time) was the longest-running show in Broadway history. And it won a surprising number of Tony Awards.
Topics include: how Grease is like Cats, Little Mary Sunshine, 98.1FM WOGL, nostalgia, the bad shows we did in high school, and does Sandy cave under societal pressure or simply play with her identity like every teenager should?
Featured recordings: Grease - The Original Broadway Cast Album (1972)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking BARBRA! ALL YEAR!! BARBRA!!!
Fan-favorites Roddy Flynn and Robbie Rozelle are here to kick off THE YEAR OF BARBRA on The Original Cast at the Movies with her cinematic and Oscar-winning debut!
Want to hear more The Original Cast at the Movies? Head over to our Patreon! Any pledge level includes access to our monthly movie podcast, as well as access to our back catalog since 2017!
Stephen is the author of the critically acclaimed Pentecost & Parker mystery series. Book 3 of which is OUT NOW! And he’s here for a musical based on another famed murder mystery duo: Nick and Nora Charles of The Thin Man movie series. And this musical is . . . definitely a musical.
Topics include: Arthur Laurents, missing the magic, slime tutorials, Raymond Chandler, not knowing your source material, and veranda finales.
Featured recordings: Nick & Nora - Original Broadway Cast (1991)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking musical sequels and musical biopics!
Mark is a 2-time BroadwayWorld Award-winning singer, actor, dancer, etc. And he’s here for a musical that flopped so hard it closed a Broadway theatre. Like, permanently.
Topics include: the importance of going out-of-town, the art of the cabaret, writing a musical for yourself to star in, the moon & New York City, and disco ball death scenes.
GET TICKETS to Mark William: Technicolor Dream at the Green Room 42
Featured recordings: Legs Diamond - Original Broadway Cast Recording (1989) • Long Live Love - Olivia Newton-John (1974) • The Boy from Oz - A Decca Original Broadway Cast Album (2003) • Making Every Moment Count - Peter Allen (1990)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking musical sequels and musical biopics!
You can see Julie every Thursday as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl at the August Wilson but you can listen to her HERE and NOW talking about <checks notes> . . . Grease 2?
Topics include: FYE, open-heart surgery, the insecurity of being Tom Hanks, voice lessons as a kid, and not being recognized by Lin-Manuel in a pharmacy.
Featured recordings: Grease 2 - Original Soundtrack Recording (1982) • Hand in Hand - Julie Benko & Jason Yeager (2022)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking musical sequels and musical biopics!
My guest today is an author, performer, and theatre historian. Her book Gemingani is available now from Applause. And she’s here about a dark musical about dark times with some bops along the way.
Topics include: Elvis, being a Cerveris evangelist, incel icons, bardic tradition, and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
Featured recordings: Assassins - The Broadway Cast Recording (2004)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking musical sequels and musical biopics!
Paul was the editor and publisher of the famed Sondheim Review and he’s written a book about his relationship with the master entitled Sondheim & Me (which is great and you should buy it and read it)! And he’s here with one of the first musicals he saw that engendered a life-long vocation.
Topics include: seeing Do I Hear a Waltz? In its original Broadway run, translating Sondheim lyrics, donating your media, Greek mythology, and the time Stephen Sondheim got SO mad.
Paul’s works on Bookshop Dot Org
Featured recordings: The Golden Apple - Original Cast Recording (1954) • Off Broadway - Jerry Orbach (1963)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking musical sequels and musical biopics!
A.J. is a comedian and co-host of the wonderful The Worst of All Possible Worlds podcast and here for a bad show that has one or two moments of music theatre heaven.
Topics include: slime tutorials, 2x4 with googly eyes, “broken clock” moments, the living embodiment of “well, actually,” Les Contes d'Hoffmann, and lyrics with a good mouth-feel.
”Inside High Fidelity” background and analysis by Scott Miller
The Worst of All Possible Worlds
Featured recordings: High Fidelity - Original Broadway Cast Recording (2007) • American Idiot - The Original Broadway Cast Recording (2010)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking musical sequels and musical biopics!
Alexandra Bowman is a freelance illustrator, political cartoonist, satirist, and fine artist from Washington, D.C. Her cartoons have appeared in Our Daily Planet, World War Zero, and The Lincoln Project. And she’s here to talk about a show SHE’S WRITING A MASTER’S THESIS ABOUT!
Topics include: starting with Cats, Tim Rice says things, being a Cogsworth in a room full of Belles, Hamilton, the definition of satire, and can you ethically produce historical events on stage?
Queen of Hearts, the 1972 Eva Peron Thames Documentary narrated by Diana Rigg
Featured recordings: Evita - An Opera Based on the Life Story of Eva Perón: 1919-1952 (1976)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking musical sequels and musical biopics!
Dan is an Emmy-winning writer and 1/3 of the wonderful podcast The Flop House and he has come here today to talk about the barber, the baker, his wife, and her Toby.
Topics include: HAIR, Josh Groban & Annaleigh Ashford, Johann’s agency, Death in the Cathedral, pre-Fletcher Lansbury, and why maybe the Coen Brothers should’ve made the movie.
Featured recordings: Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street - Original Cast (1979) • A Wild and Crazy Guy - Steve Martin (1978)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking musical sequels and musical biopics!
Marc is the host of the popular YouTube channel Broadway by Ghostlight and is here for a show that ran for 8 performances despite Barbra Streisand’s best efforts.
Topics include: selling merch at The Drowsy Chaperone, Lee Wilkoff v. Eddie Korbich, shows that should’ve gone out of town, Anyone Can Whistle, and Blue Pear Records.
Broadway by Ghostlight - Drat! The Cat!: Broadway's Best 8-Performance FLOP
Broadway by Ghostlight - The Outrageous Publicity Stunts Of David Merrick
Featured recordings: Drat! The Cat! - Studio Cast Recording (1997) • My Name Is Barbra, Two... - Barbra Streisand (1965)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking musical sequels and musical biopics!
Adam is the National Theater and Dance Editor and chief theater critic at TimeOut New York and President of the New York Drama Critics' Circle. And he is here for a big episode about a very big show on a very big, double-LP.
Topics include: Patti, Mandy, Patti's rage, Bob Gunton’s accent, Mandy being Mandy all over the second act, comma writing, Mark Syers, the worst lyric in Chess, the “Big Apple,” and the agony and the ecstasy of Tim Rice.
Featured recordings: Evita - Premiere American Recording (1979) • Pacific Overtures - Original Broadway Cast Recording (1976) • Chess - Original Broadway Cast Recording (1988)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking musical sequels and musical biopics!
Playbill’s Director of Events & Creative Strategy Len Rodino stops by to talk about this BIG musical about BIG drama that had BIG drama around it for 40+ years!
Topics include: taking the bus from PA, Patti LuPone’s memoir, 5 “useful” majors, starting as the receptionist, cigarette ads in my Playbill, and And Juliet!
Featured recordings: Sunset Blvd. - American Premiere Recording (1993) • Boulevard! - The Complete Musical Adaptation (2008)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking musical sequels and musical biopics!
Emmy-winner and former The Daily Show head-writer Elliott Kalan is here for a musical running now about then but really about way back then which seems to have been lost now.
Topics include: losing on Jeopardy!, adding jokes by Larry David, ethical use of a resurrection machine, Frank Loesser, the House Committee on “Shipoopi,” Broadway sets of the 50s & 60s, and (of course) is Winthrop Marion’s son and does that matter?
Featured recordings: The Music Man - Original Broadway Cast (1957)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking musical sequels and musical biopics!
Comedian/filmmaker Em Humble comes to us from the North of England to talk about a film that . . . makes . . . no . . . . . . sense?
Topics include: the Childcatcher, late 60s sexism, Colonialism, songs that make no sense, the Leeds Tealights, and stage freight.
Em’s viral “Every ‘Northern’ character in a musical.” Video
The IMDb Trivia section for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Featured recordings: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - Original Cast Soundtrack (1968)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking musical sequels and musical biopics!
Zach is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Broadway Beat, a Broadway/theatre-based satire publication which has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and USA Today, and which Seth Rudetsky called “truly brilliant comic writing.”
Topics include: Hans Zimmer, Scar being a creeper, Parade, backstage industrial accidents, folks who don’t know what a stage manger is, and The Original Cast BINGO!
Featured recordings: The Lion King - Original Broadway Cast Recording (1997)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking musical sequels and musical biopics!
Stephanie is an actor, musician, and theatre practitioner who is here for a one-act, five-actor musical telling the true story of a future saint, her friend locked in a church, and her eye, hand, and mouth.
Topics include: anchoresses, nuns, Catholic college, intentional dissonance, wrestling with songs, and staying true to yourself in the midst of it all.
Featured recordings: In the Green - Original Cast Recording (2019) • Novelty Idols - Stephanie Ridgeway Johnson (2021)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking musical sequels and musical biopics!
HaleyJane does many, many, many things (songwriter, performer, comedian, et al.) but listeners of our little show probably know her best from her work on Broadway’s answer to The Onion: The Broadway Beat.
Topics include: camping up the camp, genre-blending, the King, how Joseph was kind of a dick, and maybe ALW just NEEDS a narrator?
Featured recordings: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - Original Canadian Cast Recording (1992) • “Three First Names” - HaleyJane Rose (2018)
Visit our Patreon for access to our monthly live stream The Original Cast at the Movies where this year we’re talking musical sequels and musical biopics!