On episode 23 of the Filmed Live Musicals podcast, host Luisa Lyons chats with Jessica Ryan, founder and CEO of Broadway Unlocked.  

In this fun conversation, we talk about Jessica's grandparents role in getting her into theatre, how being an advocate for the Crime Victims Treatment Center and making accessible content led to a career in digital theatre, the inspiration of early Kickstarter, being an early adopter of tech, why the theatre industry is afraid of streaming, how COVID has shifted the game, and more!

Jessica Ryan is a serial entrepreneur, award winning director/actor/writer and mad scientist at the intersection of technology and the arts. Her groundbreaking work has been featured at Talks at Google, The New York Times, Idealist, W42ST Magazine, and CBS Sunday Morning. She created Broadway’s first hybrid concert blending digital and in-person audiences almost a decade ago;  All Together Now, her latest venture, is digital venue technology for exclusive audience experiences around live shows. In case you’re not exhausted yet, she’s also the creator and host of #TechTheatre Tuesdays on the Clubhouse App, as well as its' recap podcast with tech and media startup veteran Joe White, as well as the Take Me To Coffee Podcast with Hamilton star Andrew Call. Currently accepting extra hours in the day, inquire within. Learn more at www.broadwayunlocked.com and follow Broadway Unlocked on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

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This week, host Luisa Lyons chats with actor Jalynn Steele about the upcoming livestream of Titanique the Maiden Voyage Concert. Titanique is a new parody musical that reveals what really happened to Jack and Rose on that fateful night, as told by Céline Dion! 
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In this laugh-filled chat, we talk about the joy of performing, going to State for theatre, what Jalynn learnt during the pandemic, performing with COVID restrictions, The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, and the importance of diverse representation on Broadway.

Jalynn Steele is an energetic light placed here on earth to shine joy to everyone. Through the years she has graced many stages across the world and is extremely excited to join the awesome cast of Titanique! Credits include; Broadway: The Lightning Thief: A Percy Jackson Musical, Off Broadway: Sistas: The Musical, National/International Tour: Fosse, Regional Theatre: Mamma Mia, Beehive, and Little Shop of Horrors. Other credits include; Sesame Street, After Midnight, Rock of Ages, Burn the Floor, The Wiz, Songs for a New World, and recently, many virtual performances. Her life’s creed, “Live, laugh & love!” Follow on Facebook and Instagram. 

Titanique the Maiden Voyage Concert will be livestreamed at 7.30pm EDT on May 2. Tickets are available from Stellar. 

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This week host Luisa Lyons chats with Filipino-American artist Lourds Lane - book writer, composer, lyricist, arranger, and violin-playing co-star of the new rock musical SuperYou. The musical was scheduled to open off-Broadway in May 2020, but was postponed due to the pandemic. Instead, a concert version was performed on the back of pick-up trucks at a drive-in in upstate New York. The concert was filmed and is available to stream on Broadway on Demand!

We talk about how music inspires, how writing music for a touring rock band helped Lourds write a musical, the Medusa Festival, the intensely personal inspiration behind SuperYou, why the team defied industry malaise at the start of the pandemic and staged the drive-in concert, how the concert was filmed, and putting your work online.

Learn more about Lourds Lane at www.lourdslane.com and SuperYou at www.superyoumusical.com. 

SuperYou is available to stream on demand until April 15, 2021 at Broadway on Demand.

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Filmed Live Musicals is the most comprehensive online searchable database for musicals that have been filmed live on stage. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also support the site at Patreon. Patrons get early access to content, no matter how much you pledge.

On episode 17 of the Filmed Live Musicals podcast, host Luisa Lyons chats with the Creative Director of HMDT Music, Tertia Sefton-Green. 

We chat about HMDT Music's extraordinary children's theatre education program pre-pandemic, the fortuitous decision to downscale in 2019, and the new female-led musical Jina and the STEM Sisters. The musical is available to stream on demand worldwide until April 11. Book your tickets here! 

HMDT Music, twice winner of the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Education and of the 2020 Excellence in Musical Theatre Award, is a leader in commissioning inspiring musical works embedding the arts across all areas of learning for young people. Key successes include: Trench Brothers commemorating ethnic minority soldiers in WW1; Shadowball ground-breaking baseball and jazz opera; Hear Our Voice international tour of a new work compiled from children’s Holocaust writings. HMDT runs an extensive Saturday Music Programme and arts-rehabilitation projects for young offenders. Their Creative Director Tertia Sefton-Green has created, commissioned, managed all their large-scale projects in addition to fundraising and writing some of the libretti. She also conducts their I Can Sing! music theatre programme. Learn more at www.hmdt.org.uk.

Thank you to the Filmed Live Musicals patrons Josh Brandon, Mercedes Esteban, Rachel Esteban, James Lane, David Negrin, Jesse Rabinowitz and Brenda Goodman, Al Monaco, David and Katherine Rabinowitz, and Bec Twist for your support.

Filmed Live Musicals is the most comprehensive online searchable database for musicals that have been filmed live on stage. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also support the site at Patreon. Patrons get early access to content, no matter how much you pledge.

This week on the Filmed Live Musicals podcast, host Luisa Lyons chats with New York-based Australian director Benita de Wit.  

We chat about creating pertinent work with college students during a pandemic, the LIU Post Sondheim cabaret One More Thing Not to Think About, what makes a good theatre capture, what makes theatre “live” and human, why a student production of Kiss Me, Kate stuck in Benita’s memory, the upcoming stream Alter/Ego and how Bowie is relevant to Gen Z, and what it means to theatricalize pop music.

Benita de Wit is a New York-based Australian director of theatre and performance.  They are the Associate Director for the international tour of  “Bat Out of Hell” and have an MFA in Directing from Columbia University. Recent credits include “One More Thing Not To Think About” (Post Theatre Company), “The Laramie Project” (Pace University), “Slaughterhouse” by Anchuli Felicia King (Belvoir, 25A), “The Silence” (MIT, Associate Director), "The Moors" (Off Broadway, Assistant Director), "The Rape of The Sabine Women by Grace B Matthias". Benita is an Adjunct Professor at Pace University and an Associate Member of SDC. Learn more at www.benitadewit.com.

Show Links
One More Thing Not to Think About 
https://vimeo.com/jstudiosny/review/486420579/14dffcb021
Password: N3wSw!*LIU2020

The Laramie Project
https://performingarts.pace.edu/current-season

Alter/Ego
https://www.facebook.com/liuposttheatrecompany/

​Filmed Live Musicals is the most comprehensive online searchable database for musicals that have been filmed live on stage. Visit www.filmedlivemusicals.com to learn more. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also support the site at Patreon. Patrons get early access to content, no matter how much you pledge.

While some of us are spending the pandemic baking bread, binging Netflix, and staring into the void afraid and half-hopeful that this will now be life as we know it, folks across the world are jumping online to make art, and specifically, musicals. The rapid turnaround of these musicals and, more importantly, their immense popularity, is leading folks in the theatre community to wonder if virtual development is the future of musical theatre making.

The most prominent musical flavoring much of the discussion is Ratatouille The Musical, the world’s first musical “created entirely over TikTok.” Based on the 2007 Disney animation about a Parisian rat who loves to cook, the musical had a very short gestation period. It began life in October 2020, when a TikTok user Emily Jacobsen posted a love ballad for Remy the Rat that went viral. In December 2020 Seaview Productions (who got a shoutout in the December newsletter for their promising new partnership with Sony Productions) negotiated with Disney to put on a virtual production of Ratatouille the Musical as a benefit for the Actors Fund.

Ratatouille the Musical aired on January 1st, 2021, and was only available to stream for 3 days, followed by a one-off encore screening a week later. The cast featured the talents of Wayne Brady, Tituss Burgess, Kevin Chamberlin, André de Shields, Andrew Barth Feldman, Adam Lambert, Priscilla Lopez, Ashley Park, and Mary Testa, under the direction of Six writer and director Lucy Moss. The music was recorded by the recently formed The Broadway Sinfonietta, an all-female identifying, majority women of color orchestral collective. The event was viewed by over 200,000 people, and raised $2million, the most successful fundraiser in Actors Fund history.

While yet to be performed on a physical stage, Ratatouille the Musical already has a huge global following, was put together in a month, and for a budget of $200,000. When you think of the years, and millions of dollars, it normally takes to mount a Broadway show, it’s no wonder theatre folks are excited.

Director Lucy Moss has stated “I hope it opens the doors and/or eyes of producers and the gatekeepers to democratize theater even further, and to show them that something of real merit can be created not in the “traditional” way.” Writing for Forbes, Lee Seymour believes virtual productions could help bolster Broadway’s return — “crowdsourced projects could provide a solution, or at least an augmentation, especially to cultivate younger fans.”

A new in-the-works musical starting to generate some heat is Bridgerton the Musical, based on the recently released original Netflix series, Bridgerton. Composed by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, early songs have gone viral, with “Burn For You” reaching over 4.5 million views. The hashtag #BridgertonTheMusical has attracted over 2.5million views. Receiving some attention from Netflix itself, Barlow has claimed “…the gatekeepers that be are kind of no longer in power. The people have the power, and that’s an exciting thing.”

Another new created-virtually musical, or series of musicals, garnering attention is Averno. Created by 21-year-old Morgan Smith, Averno is “is a transmedia universe — think the Marvel universe, but with musicals (and comics and novels and more) about witches.” Through collaboration with a diverse group of young artists, Averno has created “13 musicals, 4 novels, a TV Show, a podcast, a concept album, a webcomic musical, virtual reality, and more.” The universe exists across various websites and social media platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Spotify, and YouTube. Broadway Records, one of theatre’s leading record labels, recently released three Averno musicals as concept albums — “Over and Out,” “Willow,” and “Bittersummer.”
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What do you think? Will Ratatouille be served up on Broadway? Could Bridgerton The Musical sit alongside Bridgerton on Netflix? Will the Averno universe come to rival that of Marvel?

This week on the podcast host Luisa Lyons chats with Eliza Jackson, an Australian producer based in the UK whom The Stage recently listed as one of the Top 100 Theatre Makers of 2020. 
Topics including making the switch from acting to producing, the joys and challenges of producing virtual theatre content during the pandemic, paying artists during lockdown, the future of streaming, what it means to make theatre during this time, and Lambert Jackson Productions streams of The Last Five Years, Songs for A New World, [title of show], and the upcoming I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. 

Australian born Eliza Jackson trained in Musical Theatre at the prestigious NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art) in Sydney. She moved to London in 2012 and since then, has worked in the theatre industry both on and off stage. 

In 2018, Lambert Jackson Productions was born and their first project was to take Eliza’s one-woman show to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The show, The Voice Behind the Stars received 5-star reviews across the board and was then toured around Australia with much success. On her return, she took on the role of Creative Director of Lambert Jackson full time.

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change will stream at select times between January 28-30, 2021. More info and tickets available from the London Coliseum. 

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So, 2020, huh?! It has been a tumultuous, painful, bizarre year with so much loss, grief, and uncertainty. But on the other side of darkness, there is light. And if one good thing has come out of the pandemic, it’s that filmed live theatre content is more available than ever. From Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Shows Must Go Online, The National Theatre and Met Opera’s weekly streams, Disney+ releasing Hamilton, to smaller independent theatres like Southwark Playhouse, Wise Children, or Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe releasing previously filmed content, and creating new musicals to stream.

Bonus Play​​

What did you see this year that you loved?
Let me know in the comments, or on Twitter and Facebook!

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Episode 7 of the Filmed Live Musicals podcast is out! 

This week I chat with the Executive Director of the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe (WBTT), Julie Leach. Based in Sarasota, Florida, WBTT is a non-profit theatre founded in 1999 by Nate Jacobs. The company’s mission is “to produce professional theatre that promotes and celebrates the African American experience, that attracts diverse audiences, supports and develops African American artists, and builds the self-esteem of African American youth.”

We look at how WBTT were able to pivot during the COVID-19 shutdown, connection with community, the business end of putting theatre online, and Vinnette Carroll's Your Arms Too Short to Box With God.

Learn more WBTT's filmed live productions Your Arms Too Short to Box With God and Rockin' Down Fairytale Lane in the Filmed Live Musicals database, and check out WBTT's current productions at www.westcoastblacktheatre.org. 

Available now on all leading podcast platforms! 

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Filmed Live Musicals is a labor of love. All the thanks to patrons Josh Brandon, Mercedes Esteban, Jesse Rabinowitz and Brenda Goodman, Al Monaco, David and Katherine Rabinowitz, and Bec Twist for your support! 

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It is no secret that as a result of the pandemic, theatre companies have lost their most significant stream of revenue: ticket sales. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, while some theatres are streaming shows, others are responding to the COVID-19 shutdown by branching out into new areas, creating new streaming platforms, and selling virtual tickets to online content. 

In May, TodayTix temporarily rebranded as TomorrowTix and launched a platform allowing theatre companies across the United States to sell tickets to online shows. As with the previous incarnation of the site, content is available by city, though it seems most virtual content is available across all cities. 

At the time of writing, offerings include comedy and improv, concerts, drag shows, and two musical-esque productions, The Keep Going Song and A Killer Party. 

The Keep Going Song is presented by the Actors Theatre of Louisville (who back in 1973 produced In Fashion). Described as “an intimate evening of storytelling through song,” the piece was written and performed by indie-folk duo Abigail and Shaun Bengson during lockdown. Ben Brantley gave The Keep Going Song the New York Times Critic’s Pick stamp of approval, and the music is truly extraordinary. You have until October 8 to stream it. Virtual tickets are available via TodayTix and directly from Actors Theatre of Louisville, on a sliding scale between $15 - $100 (not including fees). 

A Killer Party is an episodic murder mystery musical directed by Broadway musical director Marc Bruni. The cast includes a slew of Broadway stars including Carolee Carmello, Jackie Burns, Jeremy Jordan, Laura Osnes, and Alex Newell. The music was composed by Jason Howland (who, among many other credits, did the arrangements on Jekyll and Hyde), with lyrics by Nathan Tysen, and book by Kait Karrigan. Rachel Axler, who worked on Veep, The Daily Show, and Parks and Recreation, is also credited as a writer. Composed and performed entirely during quarantine, A Killer Party is a laugh out loud, silly, and joyful spoof. It’s available via TodayTix and directly from A Killer Party Musical for $12.99, which provides access to all 9 episodes.
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In late July, Playbill launched Social Selects, theatre-themed interactive online events that include tours of Broadway theatres and theatre sites in NYC, storytelling events, cooking, and wine-pairing. Events range in price from $9.99 - $21.99. Tickets for the HamilTour, which will visit Hamilton-related locations around NYC on October 7 and 14, are currently on sale. 
And just a couple of weeks ago, Goldstar launched Stellar, a new monetized streaming platform. The site currently has nearly 50 productions, including concerts, comedy, and from-artist-living-room events.

Coming up we'll be taking a look at another innovation, drive-in theatre! 

What are you watching? Let me know in the comments, or on Twitter or Facebook!