The Magic of The Musical Episode 05: “Every Song is a Scene”

*This show is now avail­able on Mixcloud.

Join us at the VCRa­dio The­ater on Chest­nut Hills in #Sec­ondlife at 2pm pacific/slt on Sat­ur­day, August 20, or tune in and lis­ten to the show live on Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio.

This month we fea­ture the work of the late com­pos­er and lyri­cist Stephen Sond­heim, who passed at age 91 in 2021. Sond­heim was the most impor­tant fig­ure in the Amer­i­can musi­cal the­ater of the last half cen­tu­ry. Host Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er is joined on-the-air by spe­cial guest, David Duvall.

Duvall has been an ardent stu­dent and teacher of musi­cal the­ater for over 40 years. He is a com­pos­er, arranger, musi­cian and direc­tor whose work has been pri­mar­i­ly the­atri­cal, but who has also worked in tele­vi­sion, earn­ing 2 Emmy nominations.

The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal explores the blend­ing of music and dra­ma — fea­tur­ing the songs, his­to­ry, and lore that make up the musi­cal the­ater canon. Learn more about some of your favorite shows and com­posers as we cue the orches­tra, and the over­ture begins.

Links of Inter­est for this episode:

Putting it Togeth­er from Bar­bra Streisand’s “The Broad­way Album”

Putting It Togeth­er – video from the Orig­i­nal Broad­way Cast Pro­duc­tion of Sun­day in the Park with George

Diane Sawyer inter­views Stephen Sond­heim on 60 Min­utes in 1988

Remem­ber­ing Stephen Sond­heim – NYT News, Novem­ber 29, 2021

Mem­bers of the Broad­way Com­mu­ni­ty Cel­e­brate Sond­heim – Play­bill, Novem­ber 29, 2021

A Lit­tle Priest  from Sweeney Todd, the Demon Bar­ber of Fleet Street at the 2011 Cel­e­bra­tion of Sond­heim’s 80th Birthday

A Lit­tle Priest from Sweeney Todd, the Demon Bar­ber of Fleet Street from 2014 with Bryn Ter­fel and Emma Thompson

This episode  is now avail­able on Mix­cloud to lis­ten-on-demand, where you can also lis­ten to pre­vi­ous episodes of The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal.