Broadway Biz with Hal Luftig

By: Broadway Podcast Network
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  • Summary

  • If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an army, a peace corps, and a village to birth a Broadway show. Tony and Olivier Award-winning producer Hal Luftig ( Kinky Boots , Plaza Suite, and many more) has had successes, failures, and everything in between. Now, with humor and heart, he sits down weekly with a different artist, expert, or industry leader to chat about every step and specialty in the process that gets a show from idea to audience.Part of the Broadway Podcast Network.
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Art Economics
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Episodes
  • #25 - What Makes You Human? with Cyndi Lauper

    #25 - What Makes You Human? with Cyndi Lauper
    May 19 2021
    What a thrill to welcome Cyndi Lauper to the podcast for its first season finale! In their illuminating conversation, Cyndi and Hal speak about her very personal process writing "Not My Father's Son” for Kinky Boots and the importance of her glass ceiling-breaking Tony win for Best Original Score. Cyndi reflects on the roles of women in her family and their influence in shaping her idea of womanhood. Finally, Cyndi shares the creative freedom she feels while writing for Broadway and the importance of recognizing each of our own authentic selves. Cyndi Lauper is a groundbreaking Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Award-winning songwriter and performing artist with global record sales in excess of 50 million. Her iconic voice, influential punk glamour, and infectious live shows have catapulted her to stardom. Lauper won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist with her first album, She's So Unusual, and became the first woman in history to have four top-five singles from a debut album. Since then, Lauper has released ten additional studio albums, yielding timeless classics like “Time After Time” and “True Colors,” and the anthemic “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” She’s been nominated for 15 Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, seven American Video Awards, and 18 MTV Awards. In 2013, Cyndi Lauper became the first solo woman to win Best Original Score (music and lyrics) for Kinky Boots. She contributed a Tony-nominated song to the score of the Broadway musical SpongeBob SquarePants and is currently writing the score for the Broadway adaptation of the 1988 feature film Working Girl. A pillar of female success, Lauper was inducted to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015, released a New York Times best-selling memoir, and continues to collect impressive accolades across the music industry and beyond. In 2018, Lauper designed and launched a sold-out Home Decor Collection with Grandin Road and added a guest starring role on CBS’ hit TV show Magnum PI to her acting resume. She closed out 2018 by receiving the “Icon Award” from Billboard at its 13th annual Women In Music event and brought down the house with a rousing tribute to Cher at Kennedy Center Honors. In addition, Lauper is tireless in her advocacy work. She has been an activist since day one, always fighting for the underdog - especially women, people living with HIV/AIDS, and LGBTQ people. Her commitment runs so deep that she started her own charity, the True Colors United in 2008 to bring an end to homelessness amongst LGBTQ youth, who make up to 40% of the youth homelessness population. Over the past 10 years, the True Colors United has had an indelible impact on ending youth homelessness in America. From playing a lead role in securing $167.5 million in new annual federal funding from Congress to invest in 46 communities across the country, which Cyndi powerfully testified in support of in the U.S. Senate, to training close to 2,000 homeless youth service providers for free over the past year to inclusively work with LGBTQ youth, Cyndi and the True Colors United are fundamentally changing how the country is working to prevent and end youth homelessness for the 4.2 million youth who experience it each year. Follow Cyndi on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram @CyndiLauper and stay informed on the advocacy of True Colors United on Facebook, Twitter (@TrueColorsUnite), and Instagram (@TrueColorsUnited). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    37 mins
  • #24 - How Has American Theatre Changed Over the Last Sixty Years? with Jane Greenwood

    #24 - How Has American Theatre Changed Over the Last Sixty Years? with Jane Greenwood
    May 12 2021
    What an honor to spend some time in conversation with legendary costume designer, Jane Greenwood! Jane and Hal spoke about how she approaches the same show twice, the ethos for design she imparts on her students, and how American theatre has changed over her nearly sixty years in the industry. Jane Greenwood has been designing on Broadway for more than fifty years. Originally from Liverpool, England, Ms. Greenwood was educated at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. She began her career at the Oxford Playhouse. She has designed for theater, opera, dance, film and television, including 130 productions for Broadway since The Ballad of The Sad Café in 1963. Recent Broadway credits include Long Day’s Journey into Night, Bright Star, Act One, You Can’t Take It With You, and A View From The Bridge. Her Off-Broadway credits include Belle Epoque, A Man of No Importance, Burn This, House/Garden, Vita and Virginia andThe Lisbon Traviata. Films include Arthur, Glengarry Glen Ross, Oleanna and the cult classic Can’t Stop the Music. She has designed over a dozen productions at the American Shakespeare Festival Theater in Stratford, CT, The Public Theater, and Shakespeare in the Park. Ms. Greenwood has also done extensive work at the Metropolitan Opera, Center Theatre Group, The Guthrie Theater, the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons, The Dallas Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Her awards include 21 Tony nominations (winning for Little Foxes), a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, the Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award, the Maharam/Henry Hewes Design Award for Tartuffe and Sylvia, the Lucille Lortel Award for Sylvia and Old Money, and the Helen Hayes Lifetime Achievement Award. Ms. Greenwood was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2003. She has also served as a Professor of Design at Yale School of Drama since 1976. Jane’s next design for Broadway, a revival of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite, is due to open early 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    45 mins
  • #23 - What Makes Theatrical Design So Profoundly Moving? with David Rockwell

    #23 - What Makes Theatrical Design So Profoundly Moving? with David Rockwell
    May 5 2021
    Such an illuminating conversation with David Rockwell today. David shared with Hal the importance of community theater in his childhood, his approach to designing the factory space for Kinky Boots, and why he thinks theater is miraculous. David Rockwell, FAIA, is the founder and President of Rockwell Group, an interdisciplinary architecture and design firm based in New York, with satellite offices in Los Angeles and Madrid, that merges theater, performance and architecture to create extraordinary experiences and built environments across the globe. Notable projects include the Hayes Theater (New York); Union Square Cafe and Daily Provisions (New York); TED Theater (Vancouver, BC); the headquarters for Warner Music Group (Los Angeles); Nobu restaurants and hotels worldwide(including Nobu Downtown and Nobu Hotel Barcelona); The Shed (Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Lead Architect and Rockwell Group, Collaborating Architect); Equinox Hotel (New York); Moxy hotels (Times Square, Chelsea, East Village and South Beach); and set designs for more than 60 productions, including Kiss Me Kate, Tootsie, She Loves Me, Kinky Boots, and Hairspray. Honors include a Tony Award for Best Scenic Design for She Loves Me; the 2015 AIANY President’s Award; the 2008 National Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum for outstanding achievement in Interior Design; the 2009 Pratt Legends Award; and the Presidential Design Award. To see David’s latest projects, visit RockwellGroup.com or follow them on Instagram @RockwellGroup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    46 mins

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