Tag Archives: musicals

TMoTM S04E06: Pirates!

November 22, 2025   Programming

Gilbert & Sul­li­van’s The Pirates of Pen­zance; or, The Slave of Duty pre­miered on Decem­ber 31, 1879, where it was well received by both audi­ences and crit­ics. Yet even as far back as that open­ing, the show has been a har­bin­ger of change — blur­ring the lines between light com­ic operetta and musi­cal com­e­dy. The recent Broad­way re-imag­in­ing Pirates! The Pen­zance Musi­cal pushed those bound­aries even further.

In this episode of The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal, Host Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er explores this Gilbert & Sul­li­van classic’s remark­able his­to­ry and its role in mak­ing the once vaunt­ed exclu­sive realm of the “savo­yard” acces­si­ble over 140 years after its premiere.

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TMoTM S04E05: Five Lessons — Carey Wong

October 17, 2025   Programming

LISTEN AGAIN: This pro­gramme is now avail­able to lis­ten again on Mixcloud

Orig­i­nal­ly broad­cast on Octo­ber 25th, 2pm SLT/Pacific Time

This month, Cale­do­nia con­tin­ues her “Five Lessons” sub-series of The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal, where she inter­views actors, direc­tors, design­ers, dancers and oth­ers who have spent time and life in musi­cal the­atre. They share the lessons that being a part of a per­form­ing com­mu­ni­ty have taught them about life, the stage, and humanity.

If you are lucky, you get to inter­view your heroes. In this month’s episode of The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal, host Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er (aka Judy Cullen) shares her con­ver­sa­tion with one of her heroes as they dis­cuss art, music, and stage design: friend and men­tor Carey Wong. Dur­ing a career span­ning over 50 years, Carey has designed sets and cos­tumes for more than 300 pro­duc­tions, includ­ing operas, plays, musi­cals, and bal­lets, plus art exhi­bi­tions and oth­er cre­ative spaces. Tune in for a fas­ci­nat­ing dis­cus­sion! More about Carey Wong.

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TMoTM S04E04: What Theater Taught Me

September 20, 2025   Programming

This show is now avail­able to Lis­ten Again on Mixcloud.

Sep­tem­ber 20th, 2pm SLT/Pacific Time: it’s the third Sat­ur­day in the month and time for a new edi­tion of The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal with Cale­do­nia Skytower!

“Why would you get a degree in the­ater?” It’s not always about dreams of bright lights and paparazzi. The­ater is a col­lab­o­ra­tive art form that teach­es much more than just the art of mak­ing it. Host Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er (Judy Cullen) shares her con­ver­sa­tion with three of her col­lege class­mates as they reflect on their dif­fer­ing paths and the lessons that cre­at­ing the­ater hath wrought, plus the musi­cal the­ater songs that have had the great­est per­son­al mean­ing to them.

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TMoTM S04E03: Five Lessons #1 — Sharry O’Hare

August 16, 2025   Programming

This pro­gramme is now avail­able on  Mixcloud.

August 16th, 2pm SLT/Pacific Time: it’s the third Sat­ur­day in the month and time for a new edi­tion of The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal with Cale­do­nia Skytower!

This month, Cale­do­nia rolls out a new sub-series of The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal. In “Five Lessons” she inter­views actors, direc­tors, design­ers, dancers and oth­ers who have spent time and life in musi­cal the­atre. They share the lessons that being a part of a per­form­ing com­mu­ni­ty have taught them about life, the stage, and humanity.

In this debut episode Cale shares a con­ver­sa­tion with actress Shar­ry O’Hare, explor­ing the expe­ri­ences of 65 years of musi­cal the­ater per­for­mance. Ms. O’Hare shares some of the lessons musi­cal the­atre has taught her, with select­ed musi­cal num­bers to accom­pa­ny them. Think tread­ing the boards is just about find­ing your light and how many songs you get? Guess again.

 

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TMoTM: S04E02: “Once Upon a Time” Fairytales on Broadway

July 19, 2025   Programming

Wel­come to The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal –on Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio – where we explore the blend­ing of music and dra­ma fea­tur­ing the songs, his­to­ry and lore that make up the musi­cal the­ater canon. 

As Sec­ond Life’s 22nd birth­day came to a close, “The Mag­ic of the Musi­cal” cel­e­brat­ed this year’s theme of “Myths and Leg­ends” with an explo­ration of folk­tales and fairy­tales on the musi­cal the­ater stage. Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er presents. Orig­i­nal­ly broad­cast Sat­ur­day, 19th July, live from the VCRa­dio stu­dio at SL22B

This show is now avail­able on Mixcloud

Explore videos of some of the shows and songs fea­tured in this episode.

Rodgers & Ham­mer­stein’s Cin­derel­la (1957, Kinescope) — Julie Andrews, Jon Cypher, Edie Adams

Once Upon a Mat­tress “Shy”  (1959, Car­ol Burnett)

Once Upon a Mat­tress “Shy” (1972, Car­ol Burnett)

Into the Woods “Agony” (Motion Pic­ture) – Chris Pine, Bil­ly Magnussen

Into the Woods “Finale” (1991 Orig­i­nal Broad­way Production)

Wicked “Defy­ing Grav­i­ty” (Orig­i­nal Broad­way Pro­duc­tion Tony Award per­for­mance) Idi­na Men­zel & Kristin Chenoweth

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TMoTM: S04E01 – And the Award Goes to … !

June 21, 2025   Programming

Wel­come to Sea­son 4 of The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal, where host Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er explores the songs, sto­ries and lore of the musi­cal theatre.

Now avail­able on Mixcloud!

This episode, broad­cast live at 2pm SLT/Pacific Time on Sat­ur­day, June 21st, is our annu­al look at the biggest awards events in the New York and Lon­don the­ater sea­sons: The Olivi­er Awards bestowed in April, and the Dra­ma Desk and Antoinette Per­ry (“Tony”) Awards bestowed in June. The win­ners are in, and we take a look at the nom­i­nees and win­ners in the cat­e­gories of new musi­cal and musi­cal revival.

Cale­do­nia presents the show live from the VCRa­dio stu­dio at SL22B.

TMoTM S04E01 Use­ful Links:

The Olivi­er Awards

Best Revival of a Musical

Fid­dler On The Roof — WINNER

music by Jer­ry Bock, lyrics by Shel­don Har­nick, book by Joseph Stein

Regen­t’s Park Open Air Theatre

YouTube Trail­er

Best New Musical

The Curi­ous Case Of Ben­jamin But­ton ‑WINNER

music & lyrics by Dar­ren Clark, book & lyrics by Jethro Compton

Ambas­sadors Theatre

***

The Dra­ma Desk Awards

Best Revival of a Musical

Gyp­sy — WINNER

Best New Musical

Maybe Hap­py End­ing — WINNER

***

The Antoinette Per­ry Awards (Tony)

Best Musi­cal

Bue­na Vista Social Club

Dead Out­law

Death Becomes Her

Maybe Hap­py End­ing — WINNER

Oper­a­tion Mince­meat: A New Musical

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The Magic of The Musical: Ghostly and Spooky!

October 19, 2024   Programming

THE MAGIC OF THE MUSICAL — Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 19th @2pm Pacific/slt. This Month: “Ghost­ly & Spooky: The Haunt­ing Side of Gilbert & Sullivan”

Also on the air today: tune in at 12 noon or 4pm SLT for the lat­est 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: You’re the Top! — More Timeless Tunes from Cole Porter

September 21, 2024   Programming

THE MAGIC OF THE MUSICAL — Sat­ur­day, Sep­tem­ber 21st @2pm Pacific/slt. This Month: “You’re the Top! — More Time­less Tunes from Cole Porter”

This show is now avail­able on Mixcloud

Catch this LIVE show 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”)

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

This Month: You’re the Top! — More Time­less Tunes from Cole Porter

Last sea­son we explored Mr. Porter’s life and works for the stage. You can only play so many songs in one hour, and we left many great Porter Broad­way songs un-played. There can nev­er be too much Cole Porter! Bring on the music!

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The Magic of The Musical S03E04: The Best of the Big Apple

August 17, 2024   Programming

This pro­gramme is now avail­able on Mix­cloud.

Our LIVE orig­i­nal series,The Mag­ic of The Musi­cal, con­tin­ues today — Sat­ur­day, August 17th at 2pm SLT/Pacific Time.  Host Cale­do­nia Sky­tow­er explores songs, sto­ries and lore from  the world of musi­cal theatre.

Tune in to Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio here on the web site — from where you can also down­load our mobile app — 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, and the lat­est edi­tion of “Where Have You Been?” 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/Pacific.

This Month:  The Best of the Big Apple

Who knew? There are over 200 Broad­way musi­cals that are about, or set in New York City — The Big Apple. Seems like there’s noth­ing Broad­way likes as well as that “tod­dlin’ town” where it makes its home. From “42nd Street,” to “West Side Sto­ry”, Cale­do­nia shares a selec­tion of music from the shows that cel­e­brate NYC.

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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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