Tag Archives: musical theater

The Magic of The Musical S03E03: Reflections of America

July 20, 2024   Programming
Host (female - kight skinned) in a blue dress with dark brown hair, seated in front of a poster for The Magic if The Musical

Our orig­i­nal series of The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal, con­tin­ues today — Sat­ur­day, July 20th @ 2pm SLT/Pacific Time.  Host Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er explores songs, sto­ries and lore from  the world of musi­cal theatre.

Missed the live show? Lis­ten again here on Mixcloud.

Join our live audi­ence at Ceiluiradh Glen on Sat­ur­day at 2pm SLT — slurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nowhereville/196/131/21 or tune in to Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio on the web site, plug this URL into a net­work play­er: http://main.vcradio.org — or ask your smart speak­er to “Play Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio!”

Also today on Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio, enjoy our fea­tured music On Broad­way, the lat­est edi­tion of “Where Have You Been?” with the final broad­casts of our “Live from SL21B” episodes in Sec­ond Life, at 12 noon and 4pm SLT/Pacific. And don’t miss The Engines of Our Inge­nu­ity from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hous­ton, every four hours from 4am SLT.

This Month:  Reflec­tions of America

U.S. Pol­i­tics are del­i­cate mat­ters to dis­cuss, espe­cial­ly in a year like 2024. Look­ing back, Cale­do­nia exam­ines four award-win­ning musi­cals and how they reflect the issues and self-iden­ti­ty of Amer­i­can cul­ture con­tem­po­rary to when they debuted. What does Amer­i­ca think of itself and how does that change from the 1930s through today? Fea­tur­ing the award-win­ning pro­duc­tions Of Thee I Sing, Fiorel­lo!, 1776, and Hamil­ton.

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The Magic of The Musical: Season 3 Begins!

April 20, 2024   Programming

We’re pleased to announce the start of the third sea­son of our orig­i­nal series of The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal, where your host Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er takes a month­ly look at the world of musi­cal the­atre with songs, sto­ries and lore sur­round­ing some of our most pop­u­lar musicals.

Sat­ur­day, April 20 @ 2pm SLT/Pacific Time sees the first show of the sea­son:  Unex­pect­ed Broad­way. This show is now avail­able on Mix­cloud.

This episode fea­tures per­for­mances by actors and actress­es that you would not have expect­ed to find in a Broad­way musi­cal, but they were! In some cas­es we’ll fea­ture the pro­duc­tion, and in some the per­for­mance. Who knew that a quirky film actor start­ed out as a dancer for Liza Minel­li? Or that “the boy who lived” would appear in the Broad­way Revival of a 1961 Frank Loess­er musical?

Join our live audi­ence at Ceiluiradh Glen on Sat­ur­day at 2pm SLT — slurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nowhereville/196/131/21 or tune in to Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio here on the web site, plug this URL into a net­work play­er: http://main.vcradio.org — or ask your smart speak­er to “Play Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio!”

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Relat­ed Videos (some men­tioned in this episode)

Christo­pher Walken Dances: “Weapon of Choice” Fat­boy Slim

Christo­pher Walken Dances: “Let’s Mis­be­have” from Pen­nies from Heaven

1776 (Round­about 1997) fea­tur­ing Brent Spin­er as John Adams

65th Annu­al Tonys — Daniel Rad­cliffe — Broth­er­hood of Man — How To Suc­ceed In Busi­ness 

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The Magic of The Musical: “Three by Lerner & Loewe”

September 16, 2023   Programming

THE MAGIC OF THE MUSICAL — Orig­i­nal­ly broad­cast Sat­ur­day, Sep­tem­ber 16th 2023. This Month: “Three by Lern­er & Loewe”

THIS SHOW IS NOW AVAILABLE ON MIXCLOUD

For this mon­th’s episode we return to the Gold Hall at the ele­gant Angel Manor Estate. Join our live audi­ence in Sec­ond Life or on-the-air!

Also on the air today: tune in at 12 noon or 4pm SLT for an edi­tion of “Where Have You Been?”. Plus “Engines of Our Inge­nu­ity” from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hous­ton, every four hours from 4am. Fea­tured Music today will, of course, be “On Broadway!”.

TUNE IN  at main.vcradio.org, or “Play Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio” on your smart speaker*!
(*If this does­n’t work first time, say “Enable Skill” and when asked what skill to enable, say “Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio”)

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The Magic of The Musical: Series 2 Episode 1 now on Mixcloud

April 24, 2023   Programming

MUSICAL THEATER FANS:  Our sec­ond sea­son of month­ly shows, live from Angel Manor, began on April 15… but if you missed it, here’s your chance to catch up: Lis­ten again on Mixcloud!

THIS EPISODE:
“Musi­cals with­in Musicals”

Every­thing is “meta” these days, but just a few cul­tur­al rev­o­lu­tions ago a young and devel­op­ing Amer­i­can musi­cal the­ater dis­cov­ered the val­ue of self-ref­er­en­tial sto­ry­telling. This episode looks at musi­cals which “break the fourth wall” by acknowl­edg­ing the audi­ence — and even include their own musicals!

Lis­ten again on Mixcloud!

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The Magic of The Musical: The Tony Awards

February 18, 2023   Programming

Our new sea­son of The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal with Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er begins in April, but in the run-up to that time, we’re repeat­ing some of last sea­son’s pro­grammes, so today, Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 18th at 2pm slt/pacific you can hear our show on the Tony Awards, orig­i­nal­ly broad­cast live from SL19B last year.

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.

In this, Episode 03: “Count­down to The Tony Awards” your host Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er talks to guest Mor­rie Enders, the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Lin­coln Com­mu­ni­ty Play­house in Nebras­ka. Togeth­er they explore some “what ifs” and “might have been“s from var­i­ous Best Musi­cal races from the Amer­i­can The­ater Wing’s Tony Awards past.

In keep­ing with the show, “On Broad­way!” is our Fea­tured Music theme through the day. And don’t miss the episode of Where Have You Been? where we vis­it Svar­ga, and Engines of Our Inge­nu­ity every four hours from 4am Pacific.

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The Magic of The Musical: “Musicals for the Win!”

November 19, 2022   Programming

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.

This show is now avail­able on Mixcloud

This mon­th’s episode fea­tures musi­cals that have been  hon­ored with the Pul­tiz­er Prize for Dra­ma.  The Dra­ma cat­e­go­ry of this pres­ti­gious award rec­og­nizes a dis­tin­guished play by an Amer­i­can author, prefer­ably orig­i­nal in its source and deal­ing with Amer­i­can life. It is an impres­sive list that includes every­thing from Gersh­win to Steven Sond­heim, to Lin-Manuel Miran­da.  The list fas­ci­nates as much for what is miss­ing from it as the shows that were honored.

Today Host Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er explores the list with a few side trips. Join us today: Sat­ur­day, Novem­ber 19th at 2pm pacif­ic at the Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio The­ater on Chest­nut Hills, or tune in to lis­ten on-the-air, for The Mag­ic Of The Musi­cal:

SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Chestnut%20Hills/124/89/3804

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The Magic of The Musical: “With Cat-Like Tread” Now On Mixcloud

September 20, 2022   Programming

The lat­est episode of “The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal” is now avail­able on Mix­cloud! Click here to lis­ten

“With Cat-Like Tread” focus­es on the influ­ence of the dis­tinc­tive operettas of W.S. Gilbert & Arthur Sul­li­van on Amer­i­can musi­cal theater’s evo­lu­tion years lat­er in the 20th C.  Host Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er is joined by guest Elrik Mer­lin as they com­pare and con­trast with views from both sides of “the pond.”

At the height of the Vic­to­ri­an era in Eng­land, a part­ner­ship devel­oped between drama­tist W.S. Gilbert and com­pos­er Arthur Sul­li­van that result­ed in a form of operetta so unique that it is reg­u­lar­ly referred to as its own genre: “G&S” – Gilbert and Sul­li­van.  Their dozen musi­cal shows direct­ly influ­enced musi­cal the­ater in the 20th C, intro­duc­ing inno­va­tions in con­tent and form that are still part of the lan­guage of musi­cals today. They’ve stood the tests of time, pol­i­tics, and par­o­dy – often­times encour­ag­ing the lat­ter. Their shows are still wide­ly per­formed in the Eng­lish speak­ing world, and Gilbert and Sul­li­van soci­eties abound in North America.

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.

NOTE: The actor men­tioned in this episode who por­trayed the Police Con­sta­ble in the 1980 New York Pub­lic The­ater pro­duc­tion was actu­al­ly Tony Azi­to, not Tony Ansel­mo. Azi­to was an Amer­i­can eccen­tric dancer and char­ac­ter actor.  Ansel­mo is an Amer­i­can voice actor, best known as the voice of Don­ald Duck.

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

August 20, 2022   Programming

*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:

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The Magic of The Musical Episode 04: “A New Vision”

July 16, 2022   Programming

The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal, Episode 04 “A New Vision”
… fea­tur­ing the life and works of Oscar Ham­mer­stein II. Join us at the VCRa­dio The­ater on Chest­nut Hills in #Sec­ondlife at 2pm pacific/slt on Sat­ur­day, July 16, or tune in and lis­ten to the show live on Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio.

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.

In keep­ing with today’s show, “On Broad­way!” is our Fea­tured Music theme through the day. And don’t miss the lat­est episode of Where Have You Been? which this time vis­its the Uni­ty Project at Rain­bow Painters Gallery, and Engines of Our Inge­nu­ity every four hours from 4am Pacific.

*This show is now avail­able on Mixcloud

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