Apr 15, 2024
For the first time in over 4 years and 90 episodes (!), we return to Merrily We Roll Along, Sondheim's greatest flop and now one of the biggest hits on Broadway. We'll looking at Merrily for our next two episodes, actually, since it has multiple songs that fit this miniseries quite nicely. First up, we have the Act 1...
Mar 31, 2024
We're continuing our miniseries on Sondheim's conversation songs. This episode, we ask a very simple question: can a song simulataneously be about absolutely nothing and abosolutely everything? And we answer it with a resounding, "Yes," -- at least it can if the song is question is "Someone in a Tree" from Pacific...
Mar 16, 2024
From "Waiting for Life" to "Waiting for the Girls Upstairs" -- it's Sondheim time once again. This year, we're focusing on conversation songs, a sub-genre Sondheim may have himself invented. We begin with the aforementioned octet (!) from 1971's Follies and talk about why this song may be the key to understanding the...
Mar 2, 2024
We wrap up our miniseries on "I Wish" songs with "Waiting for
Life" from Once on This Island by Lynn Ahrens and
Stephen Flaherty. Topics include whether being made into a tree is
a good thing, The Little Mermaid, and whether Ahrens
and Flaherty were the right fit for this source material.
DW: This episdoe contains...
Feb 16, 2024
And we're back again with another "I Want" song, but we're still
in the 1970s. This time we're tackling The Wiz and
it's end-of-show I want song, "Home." Topics include Stephanie
Mills, Diana Ross, and why the 80s really, really sucked.
Editor's Note: Yes, this episode sounds different. New computers,
new set-ups,...