John Weidman on Pacific Overtures & collaborating with Stephen Sondheim
Release Date: 12/01/2023
Edward Seckerson Meets... Bradley Jaden
Musicals Magazine Podcast
For this Musicals Magazine Podcast, Edward Seckerson talks to Bradley Jaden, possessor of one of the most recognisable baritones in Musical Theatre. Jaden has, in a relatively short space of time, established himself as the go-to heroic baritone of the UK’s Musical Theatre scene. He’s stormed the barricades of Boublil and Schonberg’s Les Misérables, rising through the revolutionary ranks to assume his place as the darkest and swarthiest of Javerts now sharing the role with Michael Ball on the show’s epic arena world tour. His forthcoming debut album for Westway Music was recorded live...
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Edward Seckerson meets... Gina Beck
Musicals Magazine Podcast
Join Edward Seckerson in an intimate conversation with celebrated actress and soprano Gina Beck, known for her powerhouse performances on stages from the West End to Broadway. Gina reflects on her journey, sharing insights into her roles in classic musicals like South Pacific and Les Misérables, as well as her acclaimed portrayal of Glinda in the US tour of Wicked. In this episode, Gina opens up about the artistry behind interpreting beloved characters along with the thrill of breathing life into Golden Age classics and bringing them to contemporary audiences.
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Edward Seckerson Meets... Julian Ovenden
Musicals Magazine Podcast
For this Musicals Magazine Podcast, Edward Seckerson meets Julian Ovenden, universally acknowledged as possessing one of the most beautiful voices in Musical Theatre. Gearing up a rare solo concert with Broadway composer Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens, War Paint), Ovenden reflects on a career that has taken him from the Donmar’s Merrily We Roll Along to TV’s Bridgerton. His appearances with the John Wilson Orchestra highlighted his way with Golden Age Broadway scores, and Daniel Evans’s recent Chichester/Sadler’s Wells revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific afforded him his...
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Edward Seckerson Meets... Jac Yarrow
Musicals Magazine Podcast
For this Musicals Magazine Podcast, Edward Seckerson meets Jac Yarrow, who didn’t even have time to collect his diploma before he was plucked from drama school to star in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the London Palladium. His progress since has been fast and furious, establishing him as one of the go-to younger leading men in the business. He talks about life during and after drama school, the instant stardom of Joseph, his brush with Pippin in a stunning concert staging, and being part of the glitziest ensemble in town for the Sondheim tribute Old...
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Edward Seckerson Meets... Stephanie J Block
Musicals Magazine Podcast
Edward Seckerson meets the fabulous Stephanie J Block, currently wowing London audiences as Lili Vanessi in Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate. Her astonishing career has taken her from a Broadway debut as the young Liza Minnelli in the Hugh Jackman vehicle The Boy From Oz to The Cher Show (wait till you hear her Cher voice in this interview!) and a long-overdue Tony Award. She and Seckerson talk of her life-changing journey with Elphaba – which she almost [ital] originated – in Wicked and Tony-nominated turns...
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Edward Seckerson Meets... Melissa Errico
Musicals Magazine Podcast
For this Musicals Magazine Podcast, Edward Seckerson meets Melissa Errico, celebrated purveyor of the songs of Stephen Sondheim and Michel Legrand and a cabaret artist of extraordinary magnetism. Her theatre career on Broadway and beyond has embraced some classics like My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music and Camelot with excursions into Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash’s One Touch of Venus and Michael Legrand and Jeremy Sam’s Amour for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. But she thrives on the intimacy of the cabaret room and on disc she has garnered...
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Edward Seckerson Meets... Frank Wildhorn
Musicals Magazine Podcast
Edward Seckerson meets the prolific Frank Wildhorn ahead of the West End opening of Your Lie in April, his latest venture (after Death Note) into the realms of Japanese Manga. From one huge Whitney Houston hit – ‘Where Do Broken Hearts Go’ – to well over a thousand songs and countless musicals, his is quite a story. At one time in the late ’90s he had three musicals running simultaneously on Broadway. One of them, Jekyll & Hyde, has become one of the most performed and most revered all over the globe, while ‘This is the Moment’ can lay claim to being the most...
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Edward Seckerson Meets... Christine Allado
Musicals Magazine Podcast
For this Musicals Magazine Podcast, Edward Seckerson meets Christine Allado, fresh from lending her shining soprano to the Old Friends celebrating Stephen Sondheim at London’s Gielgud Theatre. Some may remember her opposite Rob Houchen in the TV documentary The Making of a Classic, chronicling the genesis of West Side Story, but onstage the Filipino actress is best known as Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds – and sometimes Eliza – in Hamilton, and Tzipporah in Prince of Egypt. She’s about to give her Julie Jordan in a concert staging of one of the greatest musicals ever...
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Edward Seckerson Meets... Jack Godfrey
Musicals Magazine Podcast
For this Musicals Magazine Podcast, Edward Seckerson meets Jack Godfrey, one of the brightest and most engaging talents in the exciting renaissance of new writing, enlivening the West End and beyond. With 42 Balloons – for which he wrote book, music and lyrics – fresh from its inaugural production at the Lowry Manchester and Babies opening at The Other Palace, Godfrey’s insidiously memorable hooks are ear-worming their way into all Musical Theatre enthusiasts’ consciousness. Godfrey writes pop songs with heart, soul, and zing. Can anyone wait for what comes next?
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Edward Seckerson Meets... Samantha Barks
Musicals Magazine Podcast
For this Musicals Magazine Podcast, Edward Seckerson meets Samantha Barks, who has travelled far since she and Rachel Tucker went head-to-head in a bid to win the role of Nancy in the reality TV show I’d Do Anything. Unforgettably, there was Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years where she and Jonathan Bailey lit up the then St James Theatre with their conspicuous talent. Then came Éponine in Les Misérables both onstage and onscreen, and a Broadway debut as the feisty Vivian in Pretty Woman. Edward Seckerson meets her in her dressing room at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane where Queens...
info_outlineIn the latest MUSICALS podcast EDWARD SECKERSON talks to playwright and book writer JOHN WEIDMAN who collaborated with the late, great Stephen Sondheim on three of his shows - Pacific Overtures, Assassins, and Road Show - and was in London for a long-awaited revival of the first of them. Chatting in the bar of the Menier Chocolate Factory the morning after the first preview he reminisces about an extraordinary working relationship where making good theatre was always front and centre of their objectives.