Behind the Curtain - Page 2

Today's guests are Ethel Merman, Julie Andrews, Eartha Kitt, Angela Lansbury, and Carol Channing... well, not really, but you would think we had them all in one place at the same time because our guest this week is the fabulous impressionist, and host of Sirius XM's On Broadway, the sensational Christine Pedi!

This year we lost so many legends from Marin Mazzie to Gary Beach, Neil Simon to William Goldman, Rick McKay to Craig Zadan. We end our year celebrating their life and legacy with a legend who called many of these artists friends, colleagues, and companions: the incomparable Lee Roy Reams.

While he was known by many as The Butcher of Broadway, Frank Rich is still considered to be one of the greatest critics who ever covered The Great White Way. Despite that savage moniker, he was, and is, a proud theater geek whose desire to collect obscure anecdotes and musicals makes him a kindred spirit to all of us.

It would be hard pressed to find someone who, in the past thirty years, has influenced the development of the American Theatre more than Andre Bishop. For ten years, he was Artistic Director of Playwright's Horizons, which was followed by his current stint as the Artistic Director of Lincoln Center Theatre, which has given the American musical theatre such new works as A New Brain, Parade, Contact, and The Light in The Piazza, as well as revivals of South Pacific, The King & I, and My Fair Lady.

She is as passionate offstage as she is on and her philosophy on life, art, and everything in between, makes Tonya Pinkins one of Broadway's fiercest artists. From her Broadway debut in Merrily We Roll Along, to appearances in Jelly's Last Jam (for which she won the Tony), The Wild Party, Play On, Caroline, Or Change, Radio Golf, and Holler If You Hear Me, plus her controversial associations with Mother Courage and Rasheeda Speaking, Tonya is one of the industry's most, no pun intended, courageous artists. 

Actor. Writer. Lyricist. Director. Mark Waldrop has done it all. His acting career started on Broadway with appearances in Hello, Dolly, The Grand Tour, Evita, and La Cage Aux Folles. Then there were stints directing Bette Midler, collaborating on Howard Crabtree's When Pigs Fly and Whoop-Dee-Doo, and shepherding Bea Arthur's one woman show to Broadway!

Yes, we all know about her unfortunate run in with a hot dog cart, but there is so much more to incredible character actress, Mary Stout, who has appeared on Broadway in Copperfield, Me and My Girl, A Change In The Heir, Beauty and the Beast, My Favorite Year, and Jane Eyre! There was a Christmas with Sergio Franchi, a moment with Bill Cosby, and a dream with Tommy Tune!

Woody Allen. Stephen Sondheim. Mel Brooks. Alan Menken. Eric Idle. These are only a few of the artists whom the wonderful Glen Kelly has had to give music, and sometimes lyrics, to in his career as one of Broadway's most respected dance arrangers and musical supervisors.

In one of their most inspiring interviews to date, Behind the Curtain sits down with one of Broadway's most respected artists, Daphne Rubin-Vega, to discuss not only her career in such shows as Rent, Miss You Like Hell, A Streetcar Named Desire, Les Miserables, and more, but to spotlight the role of diversity and politics in the creation of art.

One of Broadway's most respected chroniclers, Steven Suskin, swings by Shetler Studios to talk to Rob and Kevin about his career as a General Manager AND as the author of some of Broadway's best history books.

Two Tony Award nominations. Drama Desk Award Winner. Obie Award Winner. Recognition from the NAACP,  Dance Education of America, Outer Critics Circle Awards, and Mr. Blackwell's Best Dressed List. These are some of the many recognitions bestowed upon one of the world's most celebrated artists of cabaret: Vivian Reed.

She held one of Seventy-Six trombones, she heard about Hugo and Kim during The Telephone Hour, and she got to Sail Away with Elaine Stritch. She is Patti Mariano one of the Golden Age's busiest child actors having appeared in the original productions of The Music Man, Bye Bye Birdie, Sail Away, I Had A Ball, George M, Godspell, Rags, The Full Monty, and the 2001 production of 42nd Street. 

Sit down, John... because Michael McCormick, one of Broadway's busiest character actors, sits down with Rob and Kevin to look back on a career that has had him appear in such musicals as Oliver, La Bete, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, 1776, Kiss Me Kate, Marie Christine, Gypsy, Curtains, Hello, Dolly and many more!

Theatre historian Ethan Mordden pulls back the curtain on his career to discuss how he fell in love with musical theatre, what musicals are deserving of a second look, and why Bob Fosse is the most iconic choreographer in musical theatre history.

He has kept audiences in stitches for over forty years and today its Rob and Kevin's turn as Emmy Award winner Bruce Vilanch, the man behind the quips heard at the Tonys, Oscars, and Emmys swings by Shetler Studios to discuss his career as a writer, actor, and activist!

One of the industry's most beloved artists, Lucie Arnaz, swings by Shetler Studios to talk to Rob and Kevin about her fifty plus year stage career. From her roots on CBS' Here's Lucy, starring her mother Lucille Ball, to her celebrated concert career, Lucie has been entertaining audiences in such shows as Seesaw, My One and Only, Lost in Yonkers, Social Security, Once Upon a Mattress, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, I Do! I Do! and, the musical for which she received her Tony Award nomination, They're Playing Our Song!

While Robert Sher's career has been most significant for producing the Grammy nominated cast recordings of such Broadway musicals as Nice Work If You Can Get It, Sugar Babies, and the most recent revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, today we are celebrating Robert's passionate work to preserve many of the musical theatre's most obscure gems and for those scores to be elevated in the minds, and iTunes, of those who love musicals. 

He might have written 'Fifty Percent' but today we get one hundred percent of the Emmy Award winning composer, Billy Goldenberg, who has worked with everyone from Bea Arthur to Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley to Mike Nichols, Diana Ross to Steven Spielberg.

The musical theatre goddess that is Debbie Gravitte swings by Shetler Studios to tell Rob and Kevin about her amazing career that got started doing Annie Get Your Gun with Gower Champion all the way up to her filling Eydie Gorme's shoes in the 50th Anniversary concert of Golden Rainbow! In between, there is Perfectly Frank, Zorba, Swing, Jerome Robbins Broadway (for which she won the Tony Award), They're Playing Our Song, and so much more!

Stop the presses.......literally! One of Broadway's most respected press agents, Joshua Ellis, has the spotlight shifted from his glittering clientele and focused firmly on him in this delightful interview. Today, we cover some of the 100 plus shows Joshua has worked on including Into the Woods, 42nd Street, Lena Horne: The Lady and her Music, The King and I, Morning's at Seven, and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.