Broadway Bound: The Musicals That Never Came to Broadway

Before Lin Manuel Miranda....before Jason Robert Brown....before Jonathan Larson....there was Meredith Willson, the one man band who gave the world its most American of musicals, The Music Man. But what happens when the music man wants to change his tune? And change it while being confronted with every major life crisis imaginable? Join Christopher Columbus, Meredith Willson, and Chita Rivera in a madcap adventure through one of the trickiest musicals to sink on its way to Broadway: 1491 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Composer Cy Coleman gave Broadway some of its most iconic melodies: Big Spender, Real Live Girl, Hey, Look Me Over, and the list goes on and on. He was the King of 60s smooth swing and had never once closed a show out of town….until…. Along with a wild crew including a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, a testy choreographer, a director unsure of the material, and a leading man who was as eccentric offstage as he was on, Cy Coleman tried to bring a bucolic morality musical to life but Home Again, Home Again shuttered in Canada. But soon Coleman had an idea for his next musical! A musical about a musical whose wild crew included a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, a testy choreographer, a director unsure of the material, and a leading man who was as eccentric offstage as he was on, as they all careened to opening on the great bright way. See what happened was…well, you will just need to jump into our episode focusing on Baker’s Dozen/Home Again/Home Again Home Again/10 Days to Broadway/13 Days to Broadway…..yes….there are more titles. If you like what we are doing DONATE HERE Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that qualify as fair use. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trigger Warning: This episode deals with pedophilia If there was source material that no one ever thought could be a musical, you would go to one man to write it. Not Lin Manuel Miranda. Not Stephen Sondheim. Not even Oscar Hammerstein. You would go to lyricist Alan Jay Lerner who, along with Frederick Loewe, created Brigadoon, Camelot, and the juggernaut known as My Fair Lady. But when Loewe chooses to retire, and Broadway moves to pop, Alan Jay Lerner has two options. He can either retire himself OR try to outdo the current crop of edgy young songwriters who are putting sex, drugs, rock and roll onstage. Could Lerner top them all with the adding songs to the most scandalous book ever written? See what happened was….well, you will need to find out for yourself when we see what happened when Alan Jay Lerner tried to get audiences excited about turning Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, a book centered on the adoration of nymphets, into a big old musical called Lolita, My Love! If you like what we are doing DONATE HERE Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that qualify as fair use. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1977, Martin Charnin, Charles Strouse, and Thomas Meehan, looked at one another on the opening night of Annie and said five magic words to one another “This show will run forever!” Thirteen years later, Charnin, Strouse, and Meehan looked at one another on the opening night of Annie 2 and said another five words to one another “We wrote the wrong show.” See what happened was…..well, guess you will need to find out for yourself when we explore how the geniuses behind Annie 1 struggled to find the right elements to make Annie 2 just as brilliant as her older sister. If you like what we are doing DONATE HERE FAIR USE: Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that qualify as fair use. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join Broadway historian, director, and all around MT nerd Robert W. Schneider for a wild and exhaustively researched celebration of the musicals that had set their sights on Broadway but missed the mark. This trailer looks at the second season of Broadway Bound which is called "YOU'RE ONLY AS GOOD AS YOUR LAST" and explores ten Broadway Bound musicals that were written by major songwriters. From a foul mouthed Little Orphan Annie to dancing woolly mammoths, Broadway Bound: The Musicals That Never Came To Broadway podcast is sure to open your eyes to some of the most bizarre, brilliant, and bold musicals that tried to get themselves on the Great Bright Way! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When we think of "out of town" tryouts we think of Boston, New Haven, Philadelphia, Detroit, Tokyo….. Yes, Tokyo! In the 1970s Tokyo had become the center of Japanese culture and it was giving its citizens home grown movies, literature, plays, and paintings but it had not given its public a musical that was cultivated in Japan. So what better option than an hour adaptation of Gone With The Wind? Well, what happened was…..well were gonna let Miss Scarlett herself, Lesley Ann Warren, tell you in this week’s episode of which explores Gone With the Wind: The Musical! Well, fiddle- dee- dee! BROADWAY BOUND PLAYERS Ray Hebel as Joe Layton Cameron Kalajian as Akira Takarada CJ Schneider as Harold Rome Molly Stillens as Florence Rome Jake Urban as Rex Reed If you like what we are doing DONATE HERE Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that qualify as fair use. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This one is a heart-breaker, friends. A real, honest to Sondheim heart-breaker. Like Avenue Q beating Wicked heart-breaker because, unless without a deus ex machina at Paramount Studios, we will never, ever see a musical that everyone says was one of the greatest musicals of the 1990s. Starring Christine Ebersole, Gregory Harrison, and......wait, why should I tell you when book writer Martin Casella and ensemble members John Bolton and Christopher Sieber can as they back on 1993's Paper Moon. BROADWAY BOUND PLAYERS Charles Kirsch as The New York Times Critic Matt Koplik as The New York Times Reporter CJ Schneider as Larry Grossman If you like what we are doing DONATE HERE Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that qualify as fair use. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do a nine minute song about a bird, the chest hair of Israel's greatest entertainer, an FBI pursuit of a missing lead sheet, and a list of firings as long as Paul Sorvino's range have in common? They were all part of the madcap, wild, manic, and tumultuous ride of Stephen Schwartz and Joseph Stein's The Baker's Wife. Get ready as original cast members Carole Demas, Kurt Peterson, Teri Ralston, as well as original press agent Joshua Ellis, look back on Topol, Patti LuPone, David Merrick, and a meadowlark longing to break free. BROADWAY BOUND PLAYERS Nicole Weitzman as Patti LuPone Cole Winston as Stephen Schwartz If you like what we are doing DONATE HERE Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that qualify as fair use. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when the doctor becomes the patient? Abe Burrows, the greatest script doctor of the Golden Age, had agreed to direct and write the musical adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Only problem is no one told him what they wanted...or expected... Soon, it was a troubled musical with different titles, different book-writers (including Edward Albee), America's cutest TV stars floundering without cameras, the Abominable Showman himself, David Merrick, and.....well, why have us tell you when ten time Emmy Award winning director James Burrows (Cheers, Friends) looks back on his father's work and his own experience as the assistant stage manager of Holly Golightly/Breakfast At Tiffany's: The Musical BROADWAY BOUND PLAYERS Caleb Funk as Edward Albee Andrew Leggieri as Jeff Alaina Mills as Holly Brody Redman as Abe's friend CJ Schneider as New York Times critic Jake Urban as Angel, Policeman, and Howard Cole Winston as Stage Directions If you like what we are doing DONATE HERE Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that qualify as fair use. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gwen Verdon was Charity. Raul Julia was Guido. Angela Lansbury was Juliet......then was not. Federico Fellini was Italy’s most iconic film director of the 1960s so its no surprise that many of his films have been turned into musicals. But, there is a Fellini movie that screams to be a musical, even more so than any of the others and it almost was…with Angela Lansbury in the title role….grab a pizza, open some chianti, and get ready to hear all about the greatest musical that never was: Enter Juliet! BROADWAY BOUND PLAYERS Aaron Gooden as Lucien Ray Hebel as Ely Jacques Kahn Brian Michael Henry as George Laura Mason as Carolyn Leigh CJ Schneider as Morton DaCosta Daniel Schwartzberg as Larry Adler Nicole Weitzman as Juliet Cole Winston as Stage Directions If you like what we are doing DONATE HERE Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is a fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that qualify as fair use. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices