Broadway

Holler If Ya Hear Me, the Broadway musical based on the work of Tupac Shakur, closed after just one month of performances. Reviews were lackluster and ticket sales disappointing. But the show’s star, poet and actor Saul Williams, says Broadway audiences need to get over recycled shows like Rocky and start dealing with real stories. […]

Our favorite recent segments about the stage, including lingo for staples of musicals like the ‘I want’ song.

Jack Viertel is a human encyclopedia of musical theater. He’s the producer of hit Broadway shows like “Hairspray,” “Kinky Boots,” and “The Producers.” And he’s also the artistic director of Encores, a New York series that resurrects vintage musicals.

Viertel’s book “The Secret Life of the American Musical—How Broadway Shows are Built,” reveals the essential elements of a musical. 

This spring, he joined Kurt in the studio to give us all a master class in the genre.

(Originally aired April 21, 2016)

More of Kurt’s favorite conversations of 2016 can be found here.

When legendary rocker Alice Cooper moved into a mansion in Connecticut, the locals ran for cover — all except Bette Davis, who asked him to turn the volume up. Also, when the author of the latest James Bond novel threw shade on Idris Elba as the fan-favorite choice for a black James Bond, the internet struck back. And the musical “Mamma Mia!” ends an improbable Broadway run.

In the beginning, there was Twitter. David Javerbaum — a seasoned comedy writer for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report who has won Peabodys, Emmys, and a Grammy — started the account @TheTweetofGod in 2010. Like God Himself, he quickly gained millions of followers. 
— God (@TheTweetOfGod) June 30, 2013

THE NEW 10 COMMANDMENTS 1 Laugh. 2 Read. 3 Say please. 4 Floss. 5 Doubt. 6 Exercise. 7 Learn. 8 Don’t hate. 9 Cut the bullshit. 10 Chill.
— God (@TheTweetOfGod) April 20, 2014
Javerbaum originally opened the account to promote a book, a new testament for the modern age — he just hadn’t written it yet. Javerbaum planned to extrapolate the jokes from Twitter into a fully-realized text. He finally finished in 2012, but The Last Testament: A Memoir by God didn’t do nearly as well as the Twitter account. “That’s a shame, because God’s previous books have sold in the billions,” Javerbaum says. “I explained to him that there’s a new publishing paradigm and that digital has really undercut a lot of book sales.”
But @TheTweetofGod has a surprising third act. Javerbaum recently turned his one-liners into a Broadway play. An Act of God, starring Jim Parsons from The Big Bang Theory as God (or, more precisely, as the normal chump whom God temporarily possesses to address the audience), opened in New York City in late May. It combines some of Javerbaum’s best tweets with his faux-memoir for a long and funny sermon from the stage.

For most writers, Twitter is a distraction from paid work, but for Javerbaum it happened to turn into a paying gig. “I found a way to do what many, many people failed to do which is to monetize my Twitter account,” he says. “I can’t say there was any plan to it, and I’m sure God would say the same thing.
WQXR’s Terrance McKnight played God in our story.