Episode 22: Director Michael Mayer on the Creation of American Idiot

On this episode of STAGE GROK, I talk with director Michael Mayer (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Spring Awakening, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Everyday Rapture, et al.) about the process of transforming Green Day's American Idiot album into a stage musical.

STAGE GROK host Scott Miller is the artistic director of New Line Theatre in St. Louis, and the author of six books on musical theatre, nine musicals, and the musical theatre blog The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Opening and closing theme music: Overture from Cry-Baby the Musical by Adam Schlessinger and David Javerbaum, from New Line Theatre's 2012 production. Used by permission. Logo designed by Matt Reedy. Stage Grok is available on iTunes.

               

Episode 21: Director Edward Stern on The Lion in Winter

On this episode of STAGE GROK, I talk with director Edward Stern, about his production of The Lion in Winter at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, where he has also directed many other Rep shows in the past.

STAGE GROK host Scott Miller is the artistic director of New Line Theatre in St. Louis, and the author of six books on musical theatre, nine musicals, and the musical theatre blog The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Opening and closing theme music: Overture from Cry-Baby the Musical by Adam Schlessinger and David Javerbaum, from New Line Theatre's 2012 production. Used by permission. Logo designed by Matt Reedy. Stage Grok is available on iTunes.

               

Episode 20: Alex Prakken on Touring Newsies

On this episode of STAGE GROK, I talk with St. Louis-born actor Alex Prakken, who's currently touring the country in Newsies, about his work here in St. Louis, getting the Newsies gig, and the details of life on the road. Newsies opens at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis on January 19, 2016.

Photo credit: Lance Tilford, Limelight Studios.

STAGE GROK host Scott Miller is the artistic director of New Line Theatre in St. Louis, and the author of six books on musical theatre, nine musicals, and the musical theatre blog The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Opening and closing theme music: Overture from Cry-Baby the Musical by Adam Schlessinger and David Javerbaum, from New Line Theatre's 2012 production. Used by permission. Logo designed by Matt Reedy. Stage Grok is available on iTunes.

               

Episode 19: Champe Leary, stage manager at the Rep

On this episode of STAGE GROK, I talk with stage manager Champe Leary, about the job of stage managing and her decades working with the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.

Also listen to the STAGE GROK interviews with other Rep staff, artistic director Steve Woolf and managing director Mark Bernstein.

STAGE GROK host Scott Miller is the artistic director of New Line Theatre in St. Louis, and the author of six books on musical theatre, nine musicals, and the musical theatre blog The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Opening and closing theme music: Overture from Cry-Baby the Musical by Adam Schlessinger and David Javerbaum, from New Line Theatre's 2012 production. Used by permission. Logo designed by Matt Reedy. Stage Grok is available on iTunes.

               

Episode 18: Adam Feldman, theatre critic for Time Out New York

On this episode of STAGE GROK, I talk with Adam Feldman, theatre critic for Time Out New York, and president of the New York Drama Critics' Circle, about his philosophy and process of reviewing, and his take on the state of the American theatre.

Listen to the STAGE GROK interview with Judith Newmark, theatre critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, for her take on many of these same topics.

STAGE GROK host Scott Miller is the artistic director of New Line Theatre in St. Louis, and the author of six books on musical theatre, nine musicals, and the musical theatre blog The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Opening and closing theme music: Overture from Cry-Baby the Musical by Adam Schlessinger and David Javerbaum, from New Line Theatre's 2012 production. Used by permission. Logo designed by Matt Reedy. Stage Grok is available on iTunes.

               

Episode 17: Lyricist-Composer Amanda Green on High Fidelity

On this episode of STAGE GROK, I talk with Broadway lyricist and composer Amanda Green about the musical High Fidelity, its creation, its production, its reception, and its rebirth here in St. Louis at New Line Theatre in 2008, and again in 2012. Amanda has written lyrics for Bring It On, and she wrote new lyrics for the recent revival of On the 20th Century. She also wrote lyrics and some of the music for Hands on a Hardbody, which New Line also produced.

Read host Scott Miller's essay on High Fidelity from his book Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, and Musicals.

STAGE GROK host Scott Miller is the artistic director of New Line Theatre in St. Louis, and the author of six books on musical theatre, nine musicals, and the musical theatre blog The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Opening and closing theme music: Overture from Cry-Baby the Musical by Adam Schlessinger and David Javerbaum, from New Line Theatre's 2012 production. Used by permission. Logo designed by Matt Reedy. Stage Grok is available on iTunes.

               

Episode 16: Actor Anderson Matthews on The Robber Bridegroom

On this episode of STAGE GROK, I talk with actor Anderson Matthews, who was in the original cast of the 1975 Bluegrass musical The Robber Bridegroom. Andy has been acting on Broadway, in London, and across our country in regional theatre since the 1970s. He has appeared at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis in many shows, including Arcadia, Betrayal, The Crucible, Closer, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Other Desert Cities, Twelfth Night, The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, The Pillowman, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Art, Closer, Copenhagen, and so many more.

Anderson Matthews in Twelfth Night at Shakespeare Festival St. Louis

STAGE GROK host Scott Miller is the artistic director of New Line Theatre in St. Louis, and the author of six books on musical theatre, nine musicals, and the musical theatre blog The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Opening and closing theme music: Overture from Cry-Baby the Musical by Adam Schlessinger and David Javerbaum, from New Line Theatre's 2012 production. Used by permission. Logo designed by Matt Reedy. Stage Grok is available on iTunes.

               

Episode 15: Architect Rob Lippert, on Designing the Marcelle Theater

On this episode of STAGE GROK, I talk with architect, scenic designer, and lighting designer Rob Lippert, about designing the new Marcelle Theater in St. Louis' Grand Center arts district, the new home to New Line Theatre. Rob has been designing sets and lights for New Line for the last two seasons, and he won the St. Louis Theater Circle Award for Outstanding Lighting Design in a Musical for New Line's Night of the Living Dead, and he was nominated for both his scenic and lighting designs for New Line's Bonnie & Clyde. Rob is a principal at U-Studios Incorporated.

You can read Rob’s theatre design blog, about his work for New Line, Stray Dog Theatre, and other projects, at u-studios.blogspot.com.

STAGE GROK host Scott Miller is the artistic director of New Line Theatre in St. Louis, and the author of six books on musical theatre, nine musicals, and the musical theatre blog The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Opening and closing theme music: Overture from Cry-Baby the Musical by Adam Schlessinger and David Javerbaum, from New Line Theatre's 2012 production. Used by permission. Logo designed by Matt Reedy. Stage Grok is available on iTunes.

               

Episode 14: Historian Todd Decker, on Show Boat

On this episode of STAGE GROK, I talk with Washington University professor Todd Decker about Show Boat, its creation, its impact, its history, its legacy, and the many forms it has taken over the last century. Todd has written three books, Music Makes Me: Fred Astaire and Jazz, Show Boat: Performing Race in an American Musical, and Who Should Sing “Ol’ Man River”?

STAGE GROK host Scott Miller is the artistic director of New Line Theatre in St. Louis, and the author of six books on musical theatre, nine musicals, and the musical theatre blog The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Opening and closing theme music: Overture from Cry-Baby the Musical by Adam Schlessinger and David Javerbaum, from New Line Theatre's 2012 production. Used by permission. Logo designed by Matt Reedy. Stage Grok is available on iTunes.

               

Episode 13: Actor Tom Murray, on Theater Factory

On this episode of STAGE GROK, I talk with St. Louis actor and teacher Tom Murray, about Theater Factory, one of St. Louis' most interesting companies for ten years in the 1980s and 90s, about its founder Hope Wurdack, and all the great artists and shows that were part of the adventure.

STAGE GROK host Scott Miller is the artistic director of New Line Theatre in St. Louis, and the author of six books on musical theatre, nine musicals, and the musical theatre blog The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre. Opening and closing theme music: Overture from Cry-Baby the Musical by Adam Schlessinger and David Javerbaum, from New Line Theatre's 2012 production. Used by permission. Logo designed by Matt Reedy. Stage Grok is available on iTunes.