Dischord : Figuring Out Musical Theatre

On this episode we investigate the word cheese, ask some people what it means and wonder about why it is so regularly applied to musical theatre.

This week I talk to director Andy Whyment about resistance, politics, active engagement and labels. Andy is the artistic director of Squint and we met in 2016 when we both won Kevin Spacey Foundation awards. But his was for theatre and mine musical theatre. In this episode we ask what divides our work and what unites it.

We speak to Tony and Grammy award winning composer-lyricist Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening, American Psycho, Whisper House) about putting pop and rock music onstage, the boundary between scenes and songs, seeing the world through headphones and constructing a theatrical reality.

This week I talk about why pop songs and musical theatre songs feel different. I devise a scale of how to describe the informational content of songs and hopefully begin to draw some conclusions about the gap between music and musicals.

We speak to the relentlessly busy british musical theatre writer Dougal Irvine about just how difficult it can be to sustain a career in new musical theatre. We also cover innovation, loving what you do and why giving up isn't an option.

This week I'm trying something new. Instead of an interview, I chat about something that has been on my mind. With the help of some extracts from other podcasts, I suggest that comic books and musicals have a lot in common.

This week I speak to playwright, actor and musical theatre writer Sevan Greene about his unconventional background, working on both sides of the atlantic and how there may not be a formula for writing musicals but there are tiny equations.

In this episode, I talk to acclaimed composer and songwriter Michael Bruce about the many facets of his background and learning. He has spent the past few years writing music for plays and we discuss what this has taught him about musical theatre.

In this episode we zoom out to look at the map and the territory of the British musical theatre scene. We talk with James Hadley, head of the Musical Theatre Network to ask where we are, where we've been and where we might be headed.

This week I discuss the piece Greater Belfast with its writer Matt Regan. He doesn't think the piece is a musical, but I think it might be. Our conversation covers, moving from scenes into songs, combining music and text, gig theatre and hating musicals.

We speak to Adriaan Van Aken, the artistic director of Belgian company Het Nieuwstedelijk who give text and music equal emphasis in their work. We discuss their most recent show 'Last Call; which is currently playing at the Edinburgh Fringe. We discuss content and form, debate the Wooster group and Laurie Anderson, wonder how to merge distinct disciplines and try to figure out how to make musical theatre not feel fake.

In this episode we talk to singer and actor Molly Lynch about the way music can be looked down upon in musical theatre and how to make sure it can be treated properly and what that can teach us.

This week, we chat to writer Tim Gilvin about the way pop music has a lot to teach us about musical theatre. Tim started out as a pop song writer and still looks to merge that contemporary sound and relevant themes with the musicals he writes.

This week I discuss Miss Revolutionary Idol Berserker, a new Japanese show seen as part of the Lift Festival at the Barbican Theatre. This loud, bright, assault on the senses may have lessons to teach us about why we go to the theatre, how it makes us feel things and why music is such a powerful tool. Includes an interview with the show's creator Toco Nikaido.

I speak to actress Rebecca Brewer about her ability to cross over the boundary that separates musicals and plays and I ask why there is a boundary at all and how we can start to make it disappear.

In the first part of this episode we deconstruct our theme music with its composer Luke Bateman to see what it can teach us about innovation in Musical Theatre. Then we chat with Luke and his collaborator Michael Conley about the creation of one of their songs to see how it was made and what that can teach us.

This week I spoke to theatremaker David Ralfe to ask him why he felt able to use the words 'I hate musicals'. David primarily makes devised theatre and through our discussion we try to figure out what bothers him about musical theatre and how we might look to fix it or fix his misconceptions.

This week I go on a road trip with actor Nick Holder. He is a performer who has worked in both commercial and subsidised theatre with credits ranging from Les Miserables to London Road. In this frank discussion, we try and unpick what we expect from musicals, discuss how the medium can learn to innovate and ask why perhaps we have to be happy giving people what they don't think they want.

A podcast about the intersection between music and theatre. A way of figuring out what musical theatre could be. Hosted by Adam Lenson.