Jeff Lunden

Audra McDonald, A Broadway Star Gone Roaming, Comes Home

Jeff Lunden — Sat, 18 May 2013 06:03:00 +0000

In the seven years since her last album, Audra McDonald has kept busy. She spent several years in Hollywood, filming the television series Private Practice. She's gotten divorced and remarried, absorbed the shock of losing her father in a plane crash and watched her daughter, Zoe, grow up from a kindergartener to a middle-schooler.

Last year, McDonald returned to New York, starred in Porgy and Bess and won a fifth Tony Award.

'Matilda' Brings Beloved Book To Broadway

Jeff Lunden — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:32:00 +0000

Matilda is a well-loved book by Roald Dahl, who's been called the greatest children's storyteller of the 20th century. It's about a much-put-upon little girl with tremendous gifts.

On Broadway, Old Shows And New Tricks

Jeff Lunden — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 08:33:00 +0000

When I was a teenager falling in love with the theater, I picked up a book called Broadway's Greatest Musicals. The sole criterion for inclusion was that a show run for at least 500 performances, which translates to about a year and a quarter.

How quaint.

I was thinking about that when I attended the 25th-anniversary performance of The Phantom of the Opera, now ranked as Broadway's longest-running musical ever.

'Kinky Boots' Walk Cyndi Lauper To Broadway

Jeff Lunden — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 19:20:57 +0000

If you ask Billy Porter, one of the lead actors in the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, what the show's about, he's got a succinct answer:

"It's about two people who have daddy issues," Porter says. "And one of them just happens to wear a dress."

Porter would be that guy: He plays Lola, a fabulous drag queen who inadvertently helps save a failing shoe factory in the English Midlands. And he gets to sing fabulous songs — by Cyndi Lauper.

More than four years ago, Lauper was asked by her good friend Harvey Fierstein if she'd like to write a musical with him.

Nora Ephron's 'Lucky Guy' And Tom Hanks Make Their Broadway Debuts

Jeff Lunden — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 21:50:00 +0000

Several years ago, when Nora Ephron handed Tom Hanks an early draft of Lucky Guy, her play about tabloid journalist Mike McAlary, he had a pretty strong reaction.

"I said, 'Well, that guy's sure a jerk!' I used another word besides jerk — I know what you can say on NPR," he says. "And she laughed and she said, 'Well, he kinda was.

Singing The Praises Of Pre-Dawn Walks

Jeff Lunden — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 07:18:00 +0000

Minnesota-born composer Maria Schneider has called New York home for more than 30 years, and she knows how to find nature in the middle of the city. Because her new album is called Winter Morning Walks, we walked to her favorite bird-watching spot in Central Park on a chilly February morning.

"This part right here in the Ramble and this Azalea Pond area is just teeming with warblers," Schneider says. "On a good day, you can see 18 warbler species in the morning, maybe even more.

For This Pair Of Clowns, 'Old Hats' Mean New Laughs

Jeff Lunden — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 23:20:00 +0000

Twenty years ago, theatrical clowns Bill Irwin and David Shiner collaborated on a Broadway show called Fool Moon — a giddy mixture of slapstick, improv and audience participation that proved such a success that it came back to Broadway for two more runs and toured both the U.S. and Europe.

'Don't Underestimate The Guts' Of This Modern Leading Lady

Jeff Lunden — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:41:51 +0000

This weekend, a new adaptation of the Rodgers and Hammerstein television classic Cinderella opens on Broadway. It stars Laura Osnes, the ingenue of the moment. But Osnes' career path has had an unusual trajectory.

Six years ago, the then-21-year-old was newly wed and fresh out of Minnesota. She landed on Broadway in the lead role of Sandy in a revival of Grease.

Grand Central, A Cathedral For Commuters, Celebrates 100

Jeff Lunden — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 08:40:00 +0000

Friday marks the day that 100 years ago, Grand Central Terminal opened its doors for business for the very first time. The largest railroad terminal in the world, the magnificent Beaux-Arts building is in the heart of New York City on 42nd St.

25 Years Strong, 'Phantom Of The Opera' Kills And Kills Again

Jeff Lunden — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:43:02 +0000

The longest-running Broadway musical ever, Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, celebrated Saturday another milestone: its 25th anniversary.

When it all started Jan. 26, 1988, Ronald Reagan was president of the United States, a gallon of gas cost about 90 cents and a ticket to The Phantom of the Opera was a whopping $50.

The Composer Who Tested Fighter Planes And Partied With Sinatra

Jeff Lunden — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 07:03:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTUKHMlbYGA

A Cooler Roof For A New 'Cat'

Jeff Lunden — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:03:09 +0000

There are certain classic American plays that are revived on Broadway every decade or so, to let a new generation of actors and audiences discover them. Tennessee Williams' 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, running through March 30, is one of those iconic plays.

The last time Scarlett Johansson played on Broadway — which was also her first time — she won a Tony Award for her role as the young niece, Catherine, who unwittingly sets a tragedy in motion in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge.

A Vet's Haunted Homecoming In 'Water By The Spoonful'

Jeff Lunden — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 08:47:00 +0000

The cliche about writers is they should write what they know, and that old saw has certainly worked for Quiara Alegria Hudes. The 35-year-old playwright has mined her Puerto Rican family's stories into a series of plays, a musical and even a children's book.

Broadway's Profit-Turning, Crowd-Pleasing Christmas Story

Jeff Lunden — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 21:14:02 +0000

The Christmas season is when retailers make the bulk of their profits, Hollywood blockbusters rake it in, and Broadway theaters are filled to capacity. In recent seasons, Broadway has even staged special limited-run holiday musicals — among them, adaptations of A Christmas Story and Elf — to take advantage of the hordes of tourists in New York looking for entertainment. But with production costs so high, how can these shows make their money back?

Anonymous 4 Marks A Milestone Year, Together And Alone

Jeff Lunden — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 08:29:00 +0000

As of this year, the vocal group Anonymous 4 has been introducing modern audiences to medieval music for a quarter century. When the all-female quartet asked David Lang to help mark the occasion by writing them some music, he didn't need any convincing. The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer was already a big fan.

"I really like the fact that they had dedicated themselves to keeping alive this music from 800 years ago," Lang says.

The Peony Pavilion: A Vivid Dream In A Garden

Jeff Lunden — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 09:03:00 +0000

The Peony Pavilion is one of China's most famous operas, but uncut performances of this romantic 16th century work can take more than 22 hours. Chinese composer Tan Dun, who's best known for his Academy Award-winning score for the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, has adapted the work into a compact 75 minutes.

John Williams' Inevitable Themes

Jeff Lunden — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 05:00:00 +0000

For more than 50 years, John Williams' music has taken us to galaxies far, far away through adventures here on earth, made us feel giddy joy and occasionally scared us to death.

He might be the most recognized contemp

Philadelphia Orchestra Reboots With New Music Director

Jeff Lunden — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 06:03:00 +0000

Everywhere you look right now, it seems like American symphony orchestras are fighting for their lives — strikes, lockouts, bankruptcy. Perhaps the biggest example is the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra, which is just coming out of its own bankruptcy. Tonight, its new 37-year-old music director takes the podium as the venerable orchestra begins a reboot.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has been one of the world's greatest orchestras since it was founded in 1900.

During Lockout Season, Orchestra Musicians Grapple With Their Future

Jeff Lunden — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 20:06:00 +0000

It's been a tumultuous time for American orchestras. Labor disputes have shut down the Minnesota Orchestra and Indianapolis Symphony, and strikes and lockouts have affected orchestras in Chicago, Atlanta and Louisville in the past year.

Whether Mozart is on the bill or Mahler, it's an expensive proposition to present a symphony orchestra. To do the music justice, you need between 80 and 100 musicians to play it, and their salaries and health care benefits make up most of an orchestra's budget.

Shorts Inspire Music In 'Sounding Beckett' Trilogy

Jeff Lunden — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:33:00 +0000

It all began last year, when the Library of Congress presented Samuel Beckett's Ohio Impromptu alongside a piece of music by composer Dina Koston, which responded to the text. A New York group, the Cygnus Ensemble, played the music, while Washington, D.C., director Joy Zinoman staged the play, for one night only.

"And when it was over, Bill Anderson, the head of the Cygnus Ensemble, said to me, 'Might you be interested in taking this to New York?' " Zinoman recalls. "And I said, 'An 11-minute play in New York?