Journalist/broadcaster/singer Eliza Berkon is here for a musical another show I can't believe took this long to come up.

Topics include: singing through braces, having a table dropped on your foot during a show, and ELIZA WAS ON THE SING-OFF OH MY GOD I'M FREAKING OUT!

Golden-age musicals are problematic. Even the ones you don't think are problematic are problematic.

It's our THREE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY so we've got a big episode with a big guest talking about a small show that has big ideas about small moments and long songs. Very long songs. So very, very long, these songs.

Topics include: Man 2 is the worst, Mic time for sad white men, why these songs are so long, why are all Man 1's songs gospel-infused, Woman 2's agency, Woman 1's agency, JRB's guest vocalizing Catholic School, and why Billy Porter isn't on this album.

Before it was a Flaherty/Ahrens/McNally musical, Ragtime was a Miloš Forman movie.

And before that, it was a novel by E.L. Doctorow.

And before that, some of the characters were real people.

And before that, some of those real people were real babies.

We don't go back that far.

Featured recordings: Ragtime - Original Broadway Cast Recording (1997)

Rachel is here for a show about exceeding your expectations that maybe doesn't exceed Patrick's expectations (or does it?).

Topics include: Challenging roles, Pippin, the joys of singing high, and the unattainable awesomeness of Jessica Vosk. Also Mean Girls.

Composer/lyricist Douglas J. Cohen (No Way to Treat a Lady) and librettist/lyricist/novelist Dan Elish (13) are here for a phone interview with Patrick about the newly released cast album for their show The Evolution of Mann.

We've got a dramaturg to talk about a musical that really could've used a dramaturg. A musical with more concept albums (5) than actual cast albums (1), the last one released fifteen (15) years after it opened on Broadway. A mega(?)- hit from American musical theatre's Saleri: Frank Wildhorn.

Topics include: Laura & Patrick's unironic love of this show, Laura & Patrick's ironic love of this show, Patrick's Colm Wilkinson impression, What Jekyll & Hyde thinks it's about, and What Jekyll & Hyde is actually about.

Patrick is a guest this week on the wonderful Broadway Baby Podcast talking about Chess (shocker). Here's a snippet of the episode to whet your appetite.

The full episode is available HERE.

While our topic is ostensibly the first Disney Broadway musical (and, as of this release, 10th longest running show in Broadway history), Anna and Patrick spend most of this episode on being a young actor and how one gets started in this business at such a young age.

Topics include: Social Anxiety in theatre, Young Cossette, and is the Enchantress the real villain of this story?

Did you know you could major in "Hope Theory?" Did you know "Hope Theory" was a thing? Patrick didn't.

Costume designer Heather C. Jackson is here to talk about one of the best musicals ever. Not that anyone’s ranking. But if we did, this would be high on the list. But we’re not ranking. (Like, high high.)

Topics include: Romantic atmosphere, (The Queen) Judy Kuhn (long may she reign), and how someone tries to kill themselves 20 minutes from the end of Act I & we don’t learn their fate until the top of Act II. Also Patrick forgets names a lot in this episode. Like, a lot.

We were all in high school (some of you, statistically, still are), we all did theatre in high school (some of you, statistically, still do), we all had a tap solo sophomore year in Funny Girl that probably should've been cut but we can still do on command 23 years later . . . just me? We talk about all that.

Also parenting.

Actor/singer/teacher Katherine Riddle is here for our third Les Miz episode covering the 3-disc, complete recording. Katherine has played Cossette twice and has some interesting insights into that most maligned of ingenues.

Topics include: How much stage time does Cossette actually have? Cossette v. Eponine: Who is least annoying? Is Cossette's name sung more times than the character has lines?

Doug Wilder is an actor/director/filmmaker. During his episode about No Way to Treat a Lady, we talked about the idea of self-production and what a double-edged sword it can be.

The Hub Theatre's brand new artistic director is here to talk about Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls follow-up that sprawled 3-LPs in its original release.

Topics include: Catfishing in the 1950s, 3-Act musicals, and Is a Chico Marx impression racist?

Vaughn is the Artistic Director of the Santa Fe Playhouse. During his episode on the GroovyLily musical Striking 12, we discussed two other musicals he wrote/co-wrote: You or Whatever I Can Get and Disco Jesus and the Apostles of Funk, both of which debuted at the Capitol Fringe Festival here in D.C.

Featured recordings:
Striking 12 - The New GrooveLily Musical (2005)

CultralDC's Operations Manager is here to talk about not only the '96 London revival cast album of Jesus Christ Superstar (released in the US in 2000) but also the 2018 NBC broadcast of Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (which was live but was not a concert).

Topics include: pop-culture Catholicism, the 5 notes you want to hear, and how Michael Crawford is Jen's husband.

During pianist and music director Elisa Rosman's episode on Falsettos, we discussed what makes a song difficult and/or fun to play. We also cover what an audition is like from the point-of-view of that person at the piano to whom you just handed your sheet music.

Featured recordings: Falsettoland - Original Cast (1990) • Sunday in the Park with George - Original Cast Recording (1984) • The Light in the Piazza - Original Broadway Cast Recording (2005) • The Last Five Years - Original Cast Recording (2002) • My Fair Lady - Original Broadway Cast (1956) • Thoroughly Modern Millie - Original Broadway Cast Recording (2002)

Patrick is joined by Michael J. Bobbitt, James Finley, Kari Ginsburg, and Emily Zickler for a discussion, debate, trivia, and singing. Our topic: “I Want” Songs.

Recorded live at Flying V Theatre’s 2nd annual 24-hour fundraiser: Awesome-a-Thon Vol. 2! on April 8, 2018.

Courtney Laine Self is a director/choreographer. She directed Sheila and Moby and wrote her thesis on Crazy for You. She also likes to push Patrick's buttons. And the feeling is very mutual.

Topics include: Ken Ludwig (the man, not the poster), the interpretive power of dance, and Susan Stroman.