Sunday Show Tunes

This week we chat with Joanna Gleason. Joanna has had a glittering career on stage and screen. She won a Tony award for creating the iconic role of the Baker’s Wife in the original Broadway Production of Into The Woods. We also catch up with Scott Alan to talk about his song cycle. The Distance You Have Come follows the lives of six individuals who juggle the constant challenges of life, depression, heartache and love. Having had a successful run in October 2018, the show is making its West End debut.

Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty are considered the foremost theatrical writing team of their generation. They’ve won Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle and have been nominated for two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes and four Grammy Awards. Their shows include: Once on This Island, Ragtime, Seussical, Rocky the Musical and Anastasia.

This week we chat to musical theatre legend, Frances Ruffelle, who created the role of Eponine in the original London production of Les Miserables. She went on to play the same role in the original Broadway production and winning herself a Tony Award in the process.  We also chat to Waylon Jacobs (Hamilton) about the brand new studio cast recording of Cases.

This week we chat with West End legend and National Treasure, Bonnie Langford. Bonnie made her West End debut aged just 7 years old and hasn’t looked back since. She’s starred on stage, television, film and radio in both the UK and USA. We also catch up with Howard Goodall. With a career spanning over 30 years, Howard is without doubt one of the UK’s most distinguished and versatile composers. Howard has won Ivor Novello, Brit, Emmy and BAFTA awards and he’s with us now.

This week we're chatting to with the star of Six, Heathers, Ghost, Sweet Charity, Evita and Kinky Boots, Lauren Drew who turned all four judges chairs and the was first to join Anne-Maries’ first team member. We also catch up with Tony Award Nominee and Broadway Legend, Norm Lewis. Norm's West End and Broadway credits include Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, The Little Mermaid, Chicago, Sondheim on Sondheim and Porgy and Bess (earning him that Tony Award nomination). Norm was also the first African American to play the role of the Phantom on Broadway in The Phantom of the Opera.

This week we chat with West End star Danielle Steers who has starred in the West End production of Six and Bat out of Hell has just released her first solo album,“The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be, an intimate album of nine Steinman songs. The current season of The Voice UK has already featured West End performers Matt Croke (who played the title role in Aladdin) and Lauren Drew (best known for Six) and now Andrew Bateup, a performer who trained at the Royal Academy of Music and toured the UK in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He tells us all about it.

This week we chat with comedienne and composer, Vikki Stone, about her brand new musical #ZoologicalSociety and catch up with West End star, Matt Croke fresh from Disney's Aladdin about appearing on The Voice UK.

This week we chat with Kyle Taylor Parker who has starred on Broadway in Kinky Boots and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and is about to release his Broadway Soul, Vol. 2, a concept album arranged and produced through remote collaboration featuring 12 show tunes filtered through the prism of R&B and soul. We also chat with West End legend Linzi Hateley, who made her professional stage debut when she was was 17 years old, playing the title role in the cult classic, Carrie. She’s since gone on to star in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as The Narrator, Oliver! as Nancy, Éponine and Madame Thenardier in Les Misérables and Roxie Hart in Chicago.

This week we chat with Sally Wilfert about All The Girls. Adapted from the show of the same name, All the Girls comes from a deep friendship forged on and off the stage between Broadway’s Rebecca Luker and Sally Wilfert.  We also chat with Sunset Boulevard's original Norma Desmond, Ria Jones.  Ria has starred in Evita, Chess, Cats and Les Miserables. She created the role of Norma Desmond over 30 years ago at Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sydmonton Festival, went on for Glen Close in the role at London’s Coliseum and has recently toured the UK playing Norma as well.

This week we chat with Paul Taylor Mills about this year’s MTFestUK which will take place online following the new National Lockdown. The festival, which celebrates new musicals, runs from 1 to 13 February 2021 at London’s Turbine Theatre. We chat with Andrew Lippa about The Man In The Ceiling; Caroline Kay about Daisy and Scott Frankel about Far From Heaven. All three musicals can be seen as part of MTFestUK.

It's the end of our third season. On this week's episode we chat with composer, lyricist, conduction, orchestrator, director and performer, Jason Robert Brown. Best known for his scores to some of the most renowned musicals of our time, including the generation defining, The Last Five Years and Parade, which won him his first or two Tony Awards. Jason tells us about what his first influences were, why he loves writing musicals and what he's been doing during lockdown.

On this week's show, we chat with multi award winning Jim Caruso, who made his Broadway debut alongside Liza Minnelli in the Tony Award-winning Liza's At The Palace and the host of the weekly NYC showbiz bash "Jim Caruso's Cast Party";  multi award winner Billy Stritch,  one of the premier singer-pianists on the New York and national jazz and cabaret scene and  actress, singer and comedienne, Klea Blackhurst, known for her award-winning tribute to Ethel Merman, Everything The Traffic Will Allow. They talk to us about the 11th Year of NYC seasonal favourite, Christmas at Birdland.

On this week's episode, we chat with Aimie Atkinson, an original star of Six and who most recently has been playing Vivian Ward in the hit West End production of Pretty Woman. We also chat with Frank DiLella, the Emmy Award winning host of the weekly half-hour theatre news programme “On Stage” on Spectrum News NY1. His celebrity interviews, along with his in-depth reporting of the theatre scene, have helped make him a trusted friend and confidant within the theatre and entertainment communities in New York City and around the globe.

On this week's episode we chat with Danny Kaan and Sophie Ross from The Digi Creative about their brand new coffee table photo book of the West End. We also catch up with West End star, Joel Harper-Jackson about his brand new solo album, So What Happens Now?

On this week's show we chat with Ute Lemper. Her career has taken her around the world as an actor, concert, cabaret and recording artist. Her new show, Ute Lemper: Rendevous with Marlene is being streamed internationally and Ute is here to tell us all about it. We also catch up with Hiba Elchike who has just made her West End debut in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie at the Apollo Theatre. Not content with that, she’s just become a producer of her very own online series, Out of the Darkness, Into the Spotlight.

This week we chat with record producer, John Yap, about the forthcoming release of Anyone Can Whistle. He tells us why it took 23 years to get released and what goes into producing a new release. We also chat with Love Island Star, Amy Hart. She talks about celebrity, and her musical theatre obsession and tells us which musical she'd go back in time to see if she could.

This week we chat with award winning choreographer, Philip Joel, who (in our opinion) has been the funniest thing on social media during the Pandemic. His hilarious lockdown characters and sketches have inspired a brand new sitcom, The Fosse Forest Ballet. We also catch up with Mazz Murray. Mazz played Killer Queen in We Will Rock You for almost nine years and most recently has been playing Donna in the West End production of Mamma Mia.

On this week's show we chat with David Bedella, three time Olivier Award winning actor who is currently appearing in the hit musical & Juliet at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre. We also catch up with Maury Yeston to talk about Maury Sings Yeston: The Demos which has been released to commemorate his 75th Birthday. The 40 tracks of Maury singing and playing his compositions draw from a wide range of sources - his Tony Award–winning scores, un-produced works, a concept album, a smattering of pop tunes, and some theatrical works still in progress.

On this episode we chat with stars of stage and screen Peter Polycarpou and Sally Ann Triplett who will unite in the new musical, Falling Stars. A song cycle that's an homage to the composers, collaborators, and publishers of the 1920s, who created some of the greatest music of all time. Peter and Sally Ann tell about how they've been coping of the past few months, where the idea of Falling Stars came from and how they've been working on the show together.

In this week's episode we chat with Kerry Ellis has starred in the West End and on Broadway and achieved chart-topping success as a recording artist. Kerry originated the role of Meat in London in We Will Rock You, and was the first British Elphaba in Wicked before transferring to Broadway. Kerry talks to us about what she's been up during Lockdown, her West End debut, being the first British Elphaba and the Proud Cabaret on the Southbank. We also chat with multi Olivier Award nominee Sophie-Louise Dann's extensive career has encompassed the worlds of musical theatre, opera, TV and film. In the West End Sophie’s starred in Spamilton, The Girls, Bend It Like Beckham, Lend Me a Tenor and Made In Dagenham. We chat to Sophie-Louise about what's she's been up to to celebrate her Birthday, Zooming with the W.I. and her brand new cabaret, May I Have A Moment?