Podcasts

0766: Oklahoma in Depth - Book and Score - 9 August, 2022

Join us once more time as Colm and Thos conclude their epic chat about the Young Vic production of Oklahoma with a close analysis of the book and score. Has it been misunderstood for nearly 80 years and is Curly a villain hiding in plain sight? Or is that just a scandal and an outrage? It's certainly make your chicks and ducks and geese scurry!

0765: Oklahoma in Depth - Tradition and Revision - 2 August 2022

Episode 2: Oklahoma in Depth - Tradition and Revision: Join Colm and Thos for the second part of their in-depth conversation about all things Oklahoma, and find out what they thought of the recent re-interpretation of this evergreen musical which was on at the Yong Vic. Are Curly and Jud simply two sides of the same character? Can ballets in musicals ever avoid obviousness or pretension? And it is a breath of fresh air or pure heresy? It's all er nuthin'!

0764: Oklahoma in Depth - The Writers - 26 July, 2022

With all London seemingly talking about the recent Young Vic production of Daniel Fish's reinterpretation of Oklahoma, join Thos and Colm for the first part of a in-depth discussion about the legendary 20th Century musical, Oklahoma. In this first episode, we look at the myth surrounding the show, it's legacy and the people behind it: Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Have they gone about as fer as they could go? Find out in this interesting episode.

0727: EdFringe 2021 - The Feeling of the Fringe - 31 August 2021

It’s the very welcome return of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – and this year it was somehow both a lot smaller and a lot bigger – with a mixture of physical and virtual shows, giving it more of a global reach than ever.  As always, MusicalTalk will be talking about the pick of the crop of musicals from this year’s event but to get the ball rolling, and to mark the return of the world’s largest arts festival, Thos and Colm sit down to talk, not about any particular shows, but about the feeling, atmosphere and intoxication of the EdFringe as a thing in itself.  It’s time to put out the bunting…

0699: Caroline, Or Change. - 26 January, 2021

It’s time to give your kitchen equipment dirty looks as we join Thos and Colm as they look at what makes the recent revival of modern classic, Caroline, or Change, so impressive.  Whether it’s the off-beat surrealism, quiet revolution, avoidance of the obvious and a skillful use of stillness, this most unusual of musicals makes a profound impact as our presenters discover.

0698: Porgy and Bess in London - 19 January, 2021

Adamant that Porgy and Bess is an opera?  Well, it ain’t necessarily so as Thos and Colm chat about the recent English National Opera production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess – the is-it-or-isn’t-it-an-opera opera!  With a soaring score, we look at the fusion of arias and songs, and how this monumental classic holds up in the 21st Century. 

0697: Streets Ahead - 12 January 2021

We start the new year with another look at 42nd Street, one of the evergreen stories of musicals – with a peek at the original 1932 novel by Bradford Ropes, an in-depth look at the recent London production with Colm and a discussion on the unusual tensions in the show itself which points it in two directions at one: a literal two way street!

0690: My Chat, It Has Three Corners - 27 October, 2020

Colm and Thos discuss Drive By Shooting (A Street Art Opera), a brand spanking new ten minute opera that unexpectedly uses the model of the three hundred year old intermezzo they discussed last week, and then keeping it in the eighteenth century, Josh chats with Thos about a recent adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion that uses a modern model of performance but with a score from the late 1700s.  

0689: Everything Old is New Again - 20 October, 2020

Join Thos and Colm as they talk about The Secretary Turned CEO, a radical modern re-interpretation of Pergolesi's seminal comic opera of 1733, The Maid Turned Mistress, before Thos catches up with Danyal Dhondy, the Musical Director of the 2015 EdFringe production who talks about bringing this godparent of modern musical theatre bang up to date with a bawdy new English libretto by Becca Marriott, and his own contemporary guitar-based arrangement of the score. It’s a hoot!

0676: Singin’ In the Rain (and Friends) - 14 July, 2020

In this information-packed and trivia-full episode, listen to Colm and Thos as they try to detect the golden threads linking three very different MGM musicals – DuBarry Was A Lady, Singin’ In the Rain and I Love Melvin, three films featuring not just amazing songs and dances but also American footballs, lace cravats, trampoline beds, roller skates, stepladders - and no less than five Gene Kellys!  Dignity, always dignity!

0635: Ed Fringe Round-Up 2019: Josephine Baker and Other Movers and Shakers - 3 September 2019

Josephine Baker and Other Movers and Shakers:  Join Thos and Colm as they look at some more of the great shows from this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe including Legally Blonde, Vulvarine, the Perfect Opera, Josephine – the Josephine Baker Story, Limbo: The Twelve, and MusicalTalk’s Pick of the Fringe – You and I.  OMG, You Guys

0609: Working the Festival Fringe - 12 March 2019

Join Thos and Colm as they talk about what it takes actually to put on a show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – a real insider’s view of the nuts and bolts of what’s involved.  And hear about six shows you could have seen, including (ironically) the smash hit, Six – the girl band musical about the wives of Henry VIII – where you take the ruff with the smooth!

Episode 605: Propping Up the Barnum - 12 February 2019

What a year it’s been for PT Barnum!  With a blockbuster musical film about his life, The Greatest Showman, and a London revival of the original 1980 Cy Coleman musical show, Barnum, his enviable show business legend lives on. But did the London production walk the tightrope between success and failure?  Join Thos and Colm to find out more and see if they give it a (Tom) thumbs up or (Tom) thumb their nose!

578: What’s On at the Fringe – A Musical World in Progress - 7 August 2018

As the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018 gets underway, MusicalTalk starts its traditional and extensive coverage of just some of the musicals you can see there. In this episode, Thos talks to Colm Molloy about World in Progress, David discusses Chwedl – Fairytales from Wales, and we welcome the return of The House of Edgar: three totally different but thoroughly engaging kinds of musical offering. With interviews, musical clips and song, this bumper edition is just a taster of what you can see at the Fringe right now!

568: Follies in Focus - 1 May 2018

As the Royal National Theatre announces that its star-studded and star-attracting production of Sondheim’s Follies will be returning to London in 2019, Thos sits down with composer and Sondheim expert, Colm Molloy, to dissect and discuss the show.  Is it a concept musical?  Is it really a revue?  Does it even have a narrative? Is it all spectacle and no heart like the original Follies shows it lovingly pastiches?  All these questions and more are tackled in this in-depth, forensic analysis!  It’s certainly a classic  - ah, but underneath?

559: Sondheim, Allegro and Forbidden Fruit - 27 February 2018

Thos sits down with up-and-coming composer and lyricist, Colm Molloy, to discuss the intricacies of Sondheim, the eccentricities of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Allegro and complexities of being a modern composer writing for the theatre. You’ll touch on creative manifestos, windy parks, female suffrage, and much much more, in this delightful conversation about musical theatre in its widest sense