Musical Theatre Radio presents "Be Our Guest" – Details, episodes & analysis

D.C. Anderson is a film/tv and theater actor raised in Elyria, Ohio and based in New York. Film/tv roles include Mariama Diallo's MASTER, Judy Sam Roman's RICH BOY RICH GIRL, Joseph Cedar's NORMAN, Nathan Adloff's MILES, Kevin Arbouet and Judy San Roman's FAIR MARKET VALUE and television's BILLIONS, EXTRAPOLATIONS, THE ENEMY WITHIN, THE BLACKLIST, LADY BLUE and THE MYSTERIES OF LAURA. Theatre credits include Broadway's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and Off Broadways QUEEN OF THE MIST and STORYVILLE. National tours of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, MARTIN GUERRE, THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF NICHOLAS NICKLEBY. Regional acting work with the Guthrie, Steppenwolf, Goodspeed, Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, Ogunquit Playhouse, Florida Studio Theatre, Northlight, Skid Road Theater, Conservatory Theater, Apollo Theater and Wellfleet Harbor Actor's Theater companies, Penobscot. Developmental projects at Rep Theater of St Louis and Asolo Rep. Projects include FOUNTAIN, THE DISAPPEARING MAN, THE ASTONISHING TIMES OF TIMOTHY CRATCHIT and DUST AND SHADOW.

His first theatrical performance was as Gideon's young son, Jether, in GIDEON by Paddy Chayefsky at the Black River Playhouse. High school theater followed: 'Sancho' in MAN OF LA MANCHA, 'Tevye' in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. Then came college at Baldwin Wallace College (now Baldwin Wallace University) : 'John' in THE LION IN WINTER, 'Tom' in THE GLASS MENAGERIE, 'Curly' in OKLAHOMA, 'El Gallo' in THE FANTASTICKS, 'Pavlo' in THE BASIC TRAINING OF PAVLO HUMMEL. Graduate School: 'Frank Strang' in EQUUS, 'Proteus' in TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.

D.C. has 13 full length albums of original songs and covers available for listening and purchase on internet music services including FOOL MOON, TIME WAS, YOU WERE THERE, THE BOX UNDER THE BED, ALL IS CALM ALL IS BRIGHT, I AM STILL, BALLAD, OUR STORY, BLUE SUMMER DAY, CLOSE COMPANIONS, COLLECTED, SARASOTA and HOUSE CONCERT (2022). In 2023 he will release I ONCE WAS CLAY. He was also the man behind the very first Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefit Christmas recording - 1993's CABARET NOEL. His next benefit recording project was for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in 2010 - it's called 'IN MY ROOM'. Click for CD info, including tracks, artists' bios, etc.

Listen on Spotify, Apple and YouTube

Catching Fireflies started as a quarantine project in April 2020 and then over time turned into a full-length one act musical. The show features a series of musical theater vignettes that explore the queer experience in relationship to the human mind and body. It focuses on a Philly friend group stuck at a Waffle House pre-pandemic, and each of their journeys through the year, only to arrive back where they started - but with a slightly new outlook on life. The show had its NYC workshop debut at Don’t Tell Mama’s Cabaret on November 12th, 2021, and then was transferred to Feinstein’s/54 Below for its second workshop during May 2022. In December 2022, a full length concept album was released on all streaming platforms to finally share our show with the world

Joe Iconis is a musical theater writer and performer. He has been nominated for a Tony Award, two Drama Desk Awards and a Lucille Lortel Award, is the recipient of an Ed Kleban Award, Jonathan Larson Award and Richard Rodgers Award.  Joe’s musical Be More Chill (with Joe Tracz) opened this season at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre, following a sold-out Off-Broadway run at The Pershing Square Signature Center and a world premiere at Two River Theatre.

He is the author of Broadway Bounty Hunter (with Lance Rubin and Jason SweetTooth Williams; Barrington Stage Company and Greenwich House Theater Off-Broadway), Bloodsong of Love (Ars Nova, NAMT), The Black Suits (Center Theater Group, Barrington Stage Company), ReWrite (Urban Stages, Goodspeed Opera House), Theaterworks USA’s The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks and We The People. Musicals currently in development include The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical (for La Jolla Playhouse), Punk Rock Girl, and Love In Hate Nation.

His music appeared on Season 2 of NBC’s “Smash,” with his song “Broadway, Here I Come!” hailed by The New York Times as a new entry in The Great American Songbook. Albums: Be More Chill (OCR), which has been streamed over 220 million times; Things To Ruin (OCR); Two-Player Game; and The Joe Iconis Rock and Roll Jamboree all available on Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records.

His concert act, Joe Iconis and Family, frequently plays Feinstein’s/54 Below, The Laurie Beechman Theater, Weston Playhouse, and other venues around the country.

Joe is deliriously inspired by Robert Altman, Dolly Parton, Martin Scorsese, Sardi’s, The Rolling Stones, whiskey, The Muppets, and The Family of artists he frequently surrounds himself with.

Steven Greenwood is a Montreal-based writer & director, and the Artistic Director of Home Theatre Productions. He holds a PhD from McGill University with a focus on queer cultural history, and he teaches university courses in film, theatre, and popular culture. His work is influenced by his passion for queer history & culture, and he is a fan of all things geeky, pulpy, campy & queer. 

Erin Murray Quinlan is a published  Playwright, Poet, And Composer

with credits Off-Broadway and beyond. 

Quinlan's latest show, Brain Hemingway, had its premiere at Edinburgh Festival Fringe venue Greenside @ Infirmary Street in August '22 and will be returning to the festival in 2023 to Greenside @ Nicholson Square.

God Save Queen Pam had its Off-Broadway debut in the summer of 2018, and critics raved about the tight script, witty lyrics, and catchy music. "How Can I Tell You", her contribution to the album 'The MS Songbook' (lyrics co-written by Rory Sherman) was chosen again and again by reviewers as the favorite of the song cycle, called 'the cream of a very talented crop'. EMQ's work has been performed at many venues around the US and UK, including the Players Theater, the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater, and the Duplex Theater in NYC; the Playwright in Boston; the Tabard Theater  in London; and the Actors Studio in LA. She has also written music for film and television, including 2021's comedy Bad Cupid starring John Rhys-Davies (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lord of the Rings, The Living Daylights). For complete credits, check out the resume page.

​

EMQ studied composition and creative writing at Berklee College of Music, playwriting at the University of Oxford, and composition with professors from Juilliard at the EAMA Nadia Boulanger Institute at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. She is also an alumna composer/lyricist of the Tony Award-winning BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Advanced Workshop in NYC, and a protege of accomplished UK-based musical theater writer and director Paul Boyd.

She is inclued in Scott Pfitzinger's Composer Genealogies: A Compendium of Composers, Their Teachers, and Their Students. She is on the selection committee at NYC's the Players Theatre Off-Broadway, and is a very proud member of the Dramatist Guild.

https://www.erinmurrayquinlan.com/

Alexander S. Bermange is a composer and lyricist whose musicals and theatre productions have enjoyed successful runs in the West End, across the UK and around the world, whose comic writing has acquired a formidable following amongst millions of radio listeners, and whose songs have been performed, recorded and released by international stars including Cynthia Erivo, Kerry Ellis, Miriam Margolyes, Ramin Karimloo and Christopher Biggins.

Alexander’s work has won widespread international critical acclaim, and has garnered numerous honours including two Frank Wildhorn Awards, a West End Wilma Award and two Broadway World Award nominations. Alexander has also topped the iTunes comedy album chart with Wit & Whimsy, an album celebrating his comedic work featuring 23 popular personalities and West End stars.

https://bermange.co.uk/

Jaime Lozano is a musical theatre composer who has been heralded as the “next big thing” on Broadway by Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda. A native of Monterrey, Mexico, Jaime earned his BFA in Music and Composition from the School of Music at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León and was the recipient of a full scholarship to New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he has the distinction of being the first Mexican to be accepted to and earn an MFA from the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Jaime is one of the five artists selected for the 2020-2022 Joe’s Pub Working Group residency and one of the artists selected as part as The Civilians R&D Group 2020-2021.  https://www.jaimelozano.net/

Described by The Observer as ‘a highly individual singer-songwriter’, Maz O’Connor is a truly unique artist.

Known for her haunting, emotive vocals and her poetic lyricism, her songs are most often short stories inspired by her love of literature, folklore and mythology. Her Irish roots, she suspects, inform her love of darker tales—those of heartbreak, longing and loss.

She wrote her first song aged four, whilst making a ‘radio show’ with a cassette player and her older brothers, and grew up singing old folk songs in her local Cumbrian venues. As a teenager, the songs of Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell inspired her to learn the guitar, and listening to Regina Spektor inspired her to write her first songs on piano.

Winning a BBC Performing Arts Fund Fellowship in 2014 (once won by Adele) brought Maz to wider attention, and later that year she was nominated for a BBC Folk Award for her first album, ‘This Willowed Light’.

Maz has since released 3 further albums, toured the U.K., Europe and Eastern Canada, played live sessions on BBC Radio 2 and 3, and appeared at major U.K. festivals, including Glastonbury.

Her latest album, 'What I Wanted', was co-written and co-produced with composer Will Gardner and released in May 2022. It's an ambitious song-cycle set in the city at night and explores themes of anxiety, capitalism, sexuality, spirituality, and the search for connection in an age of consumerism.

'What I Wanted' has been widely praised, and called ‘an excellent thing’ by Mark Radcliffe of BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 2.

‘I’m interested in connection,’ she says, ‘that’s what music is to me. Creating a moment between myself and an audience member, a moment that’s intimate and real. I’m always seeking that.’

The Wife of Michael Cleary

The Wife of Michael Cleary is a new folk musical inspired by the true story of Bridget Cleary. Bridget was a talented dressmaker from Co. Tipperary, Ireland, who in 1895 was burned to death by her husband and family because they believed her to be a fairy changeling. She was 26 years old. A trial ensued shortly afterwards and the story was widely covered in the press in Ireland and Great Britain. It has previously served as inspiration for music and literature, but this is the first time the story has been addressed in musical theatre.

The Wife of Michael Cleary explores faith and superstition at a decisive moment in Irish history, whilst also shining a light on the pressing contemporary issue of violence against women.

https://mazoconnor.com/

MINDI DICKSTEIN is an award-winning writer of plays and musicals best known as the lyricist for Broadway's LITTLE WOMEN (licensed by MTI, Original Broadway Cast album released by Ghostlight/Sh-k-boom Records), which continues to be performed worldwide, including recent premieres in Tokyo and London.  Current projects include book and lyrics for MAIDEN VOYAGE (New Works Provincetown), lyrics for WITNESSES (California Center for the Arts, 2022 San Diego Critics award for Best Production), lyrics for BEYOND WHAT CAN BE SEEN, based on The Little Prince and the life of Saint-Exupery, and lyrics for BENNY & JOON, based on the MGM film, which had its world premiere at The Old Globe (2017 San Diego Critics nominee for Best Musical), east coast premiere at Paper Mill Playhouse, and which has been developed at Transport Group, NAMT, Theatreworks Silicon Valley, and the Goodspeed Johnny Mercer and Rhinebeck retreats. 
Her work has been commissioned, produced, and developed widely, including by Disney (book for TOY STORY, based on the animated film), Second Stage (lyrics for SNOW IN AUGUST, based on the novel by Pete Hamill), Playwrights Horizons (book and lyrics for TRIP, based on Rip Van Winkle; Harold & Mimi Steinberg Commission), Theatreworks USA, Two River Theater, and the ASCAP Workshop. Her songs have been performed at The Kennedy Center, 54 Below, The Cutting Room, Gotham Hall (The Dramatists Guild’s “Great Writers Thank Their Lucky Stars”) and Lincoln Center (“Hear and Now: Contemporary Lyricists”), among others. Honors include a Larson Foundation Award, New York Foundation for the Arts and Massachusetts Artists Foundation Playwriting Fellowships, Jane Chambers Award (for her play, THE EXISTENTIAL GOURMET), and a Second Stage Constance Klinsky Award for Excellence in Musical Theater.

Education: MFA, Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program (where she was an Oscar Hammerstein Fellow); BFA, NYU’s Department of Undergraduate Drama.  Member of ASCAP and The Dramatists Guild.

James is a writer, producer, actor, theatremaker, singer, educator and a few other things. He made his Broadway debut as a singer for Riverdance, toured as Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar, and my performance career has spanned Broadway and off, to voiceover, television, and concert halls all over the world. I've also been involved in the development of dozens of new works for the stage as an award-winning writer, director, and producer.

More Info: ⁠https://www.jamessasser.com/⁠

Vince has long felt that diversity and creative identity were instrumental in the fashioning of a well-rounded artist. A San Francisco, CA native having been raised in Hampton Roads, Virginia, Vincent began his musical training with the piano at age seven. By the onset of his teenage years, he had learned to play most brass instruments and was beginning to work on compositions; currently, Vincent has an intermediate to professional level of proficiency on a vast array of instruments. A Congressional Scholar in Leadership, Vincent received a B.S. in Choral/Vocal Music Education from Florida A & M University. It was in college that he would nurture his studies in theater, dance, voice, and ethnomusicology. There he performed as a soloist with the FAMU Concert Choir, a dancer with Orchesis Contemporary Dance Theater as a well as an accompanist for the Florida State University Department of Dance. 

More Info: ⁠https://www.charlesvincentburwell.com/⁠

BOTTLE SHOCK! The Musical - 1976. Before Napa was Napa, a small group of California underdogs took on the establishment. The world of wine would never be the same. Based on the incredible true story of The Judgment of Paris, Bottle Shock is a tale about love, fermentation, and the spirit of rock ’n roll.