The Gospel of Musical Theatre – Details, episodes & analysis

Immigration, capitalism, feminism, intersectionality, and the civil rights: this musical has it all!

Flaherty & Ahren’s 1998 musical Ragtime is a big, expensive show with lots of plot (never Peter’s strong suit) – but we love this musical and what it has to say about kingdoms of power and the kingdom of God.

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Peter & Nathan make some highly controversial claims:

• "Ragtime" is the greatest opening number in Broadway history.
• "Daddy's Son" – Nobody sings this like Broadway’s GOAT, Audra Ann McDonald. Nathan will fight you on this.
• "Henry Ford" & "Wheels of a Dream" – Is Ragtime just an extended commercial for Ford?

And we wonder together about hearing "New Music," listening for resurrection, and what it means to live faithfully "‘Til We Reach That Day."

You’ll hear Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald, Marin Mazzie, Peter Freidman, Judy Kaye and the cast of the 1998 Original Broadway Cast.

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Check out some of our all-time favorites!

• Phantom of the Opera
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
• Jesus Christ Superstar!
• Schmigadoon! (Season 1 / Season 2)
• West Side Story!
• Yentl!
• Frozen!
• Barbie!

Never miss an episode! Sign up for our email list to get updates when new episodes are released, info about upcoming special events, and more.

What would you do? What will you do?

In the election run-up, Peter & Nathan are talking about musicals that deal with political unrest and social change (don't worry, it's still fun!). We begin with the 1966 Broadway classic Cabaret, one of the darkest, kinkiest, and most-enduring musicals of all time.

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We talk about:

– Willkommen / Two Ladies / The Money Song: The "decadence" depicted by the emcee and the performers of the Kit Kat Klub (KKK, anyone?) in 1930s Berlin on the eve of Nazism. Does Cabaret hold this very queer decadence as responsible for the rise of fascism, or is there something deeper at work?

– Married / So What / What Would You Do?   Bob Fosse’s 1972 film version of Cabaret eliminates most of the traditional musical theatre story exemplified in the romance between Fraulein Schneider & Herr Schultz. But these two characters—and the songs that Kander & Ebb wrote for them—carry much of the show’s political weight – and its emotional heart. Is Fraulein Schneider secretly Cabaret’s protagonist?

– Don’t Tell Mama & Cabaret:  We talk about one of Cabaret’s most well-known characters, Sally Bowles. What does she mean when she sings that "life is a cabaret?"

– Tomorrow Belongs to Me:  The incredible music of Cabaret – hymns, patriotic anthems, folk songs and music hall ditties – raises provocative questions about entertainment, pleasure, emotional release, and the rise of demonic ideologies. Religion traffics in some of the same territory. Is good music morally neutral... or not?

You’ll hear Joel Grey, Jill Haworth, Lotte Lenya, Jack Gilford and the cast of the 1966 Original Broadway Cast – as well as Mark Lambert on the 1972 film soundtrack singing “Tomorrow Belongs to Me”.

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Check out some of our all-time favorites!

• Phantom of the Opera
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
• Jesus Christ Superstar!
• Schmigadoon! (Season 1 / Season 2)
• West Side Story!
• Yentl!
• Frozen!
• Barbie!

Never miss an episode! Sign up for our email list to get updates when new episodes are released, info about upcoming special events, and more.

She's still glowin', she's still crowin,' she's still goin' strong...

That's right: we're continuing our deep dive into the great Barbra Streisand with a look at the mid-60s Broadway classic, Jerry Herman’s Hello Dolly!

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We talk about:

• Discernment: Dolly is a woman on a journey out of grief – and is looking for her sign. What kind of a theology of discernment does the show depend on?
• Gender: We take a close look at Horace’s song about marriage, “It Takes A Woman” and dig a little bit underneath the surface of the show’s fun to pull apart the class and economics of male-female relationships.
• Clothes: So much of Hello Dolly is about the clothes – the actual costumes the actors are wearing, and the show’s deeper fixation on the performative nature of class, gender and race.
• Restaurants: What does it mean that Dolly comes back home where she belongs? Is this the show’s resurrection moment?
• Moments: Falling in love, Kairos time, moments of divinity and resurrection and where they find us – in church, in the theatre, in the eyes of a beloved.

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You’ll hear:

The 1969 film soundtrack: La Streisand, Walter Matthau, Michael Crawford, Louis Armstrong and the full cast singing “Just Leave Everything To Me,” “It Takes a Woman,” “Ribbons Down My Back,” “Put On Your Sunday Clothes,” “Elegance,” “Before the Parade Passes By,” “It Only Takes a Moment” and, of course, “Hello, Dolly!”

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Never miss an episode! Sign up for our email list to get updates when new episodes are released, info about upcoming special events, and more.

________________________________

Check out some of our all-time favorites!

• Phantom of the Opera
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
• Jesus Christ Superstar!
• Schmigadoon! (Season 1 / Season 2)
• West Side Story!
• Yentl!
• Frozen!
• Barbie!

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Continue the conversation with us on Instagram (@gospelofmt).

Isn’t it "people who DON'T need people are the luckiest people in the world?"

Today we look at the role that made Barbara Streisand's early career: the role of Fanny Brice in Jule Styne & Bob Merrill’s 1964 musical Funny Girl and the 1968 film directed by William Wyler.

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We talk about:

• The Greatest Star: The phenomenon of the original Fanny Brice, how Barbra got involved in the project, and where the line between ego, strength, and vanity lies.
• The Audience: The sacred relationship between performer and audience and Barbra’s theory of audience (or—in a religious context—a congregation) as a truth barometer.
• The Patriarchy: Nick Arnstein & Fanny Brice's relationship, Barbra & her male collaborators, the creep factor of "You are Woman," and the dangerous myth of romantic love (attention straight people: beware writing your own vows!)
• The Parade: Is "Don’t Rain on My Parade" a feminist anthem?
• The People: What’s the theology of people who need people? Is this just a hymn to extroversion, or does it channel Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s theology of ubuntu?

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You’ll hear:

– The 1968 Film Soundtrack: "I’m the Greatest Star," Omar Shariff and Barbra singing "You Are Woman, I am Man," "My Man," "Don’t Rain on My Parade" and—of course—"People."

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Never miss an episode! Sign up for our email list to get updates when new episodes are released, info about upcoming special events, and more.

________________________________

Check out some of our all-time favorites!

• Phantom of the Opera
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
• Jesus Christ Superstar!
• Schmigadoon! (Season 1 / Season 2)
• West Side Story!
• Yentl!
• Frozen!
• Barbie!

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Continue the conversation with us on Instagram (@gospelofmt).

Everybody said don't, but we're doing it anyway... It's the Gospel According to Babs!

It's the queerest thing we've ever done. This season, we're focusing on the musical (and musical-adjacent) films of one of the greats – Barbra Streisand: GOAT queer diva, filmmaker, actor, and singer, who just released her autobiography My Name is Barbra.

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We talk about:

– The Method: Barbra’s early training in the method developed by Konstantin Stanislavski and his students in the early decades of the 20th century – and the theology of human experience it depends on.

– The Albums: Streisand as an interpreter of the American Songbook, and the ways in which her acting training influences her recording career.

– The power of thought as Barbra’s autobiography (and discography!) expresses it. Do thoughts really transcend matter?

– Keep a performance fresh – how to stay in the moment when the moment needs to be repeated over and over.

– Streisand as prophet and priest. How does an artist bring a prophetic voice to society?

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You’ll hear:

– Mostly Barbra! “Putting it Together” from the Broadway Album (1985), “Everybody Says Don’t” from Back to Broadway (1993) and “Guilty” (with Barry Gibbs!) from 1980.

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Never miss an episode! Sign up for our email list to get updates when new episodes are released, info about upcoming special events, and more.

________________________________

Check out some of our all-time favorites!

• Phantom of the Opera
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
• Jesus Christ Superstar!
• Schmigadoon! (Season 1 / Season 2)
• West Side Story!
• Yentl!
• Frozen!
• Barbie!

________________________________

Continue the conversation with us on Instagram (@gospelofmt).

Schmigadoon is back on Apple TV! The second season takes us in a slightly different direction, and today we explore the theology of the musicals being lovingly spoofed by "Schmicago" and wonder what it means that "every day can be a happy beginning."

(By the way... if you missed our episode on Schmigadoon Season 1, you can listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts!)

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We talk about:

– The power of parables, and how stories can (and can’t) transform us.

– The theology of the Broadway musicals of the 60s & 70s, steeped in sex & nihilism, and how Schmicago navigates – and ultimately rejects – that theology.

– The show’s ending, and what kind of theology is implicit in the final number.

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You’ll hear:  Cecily Strong, Keegan-Michael Key, Kristen Chenoweth, Alan Cumming, Tituss Burgess, Dove Cameron, Aaron Tveit and the cast of Schmigadoon Season 2.

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Never miss an episode! Sign up for our email list to get updates when new episodes are released, info about upcoming special events, and more.

________________________________

Check out some of our all-time favorites!

• Phantom of the Opera
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
• Jesus Christ Superstar!
• Schmigadoon! (Season 1 / Season 2)
• West Side Story!
• Yentl!
• Frozen!
• Barbie!

________________________________

Continue the conversation with us on Instagram (@gospelofmt).

If you're just joining us... It's priestly, it's profane, it's the queerest thing we've ever done – it's the Gospel of Musical Theatre, the podcast that dives deep into the spirituality of musical theatre!

When we can't find any spiritual themes to talk about, we talk about the clothes and the chorus boys.

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Previous seasons:

Season 1:  Rodgers & Hammerstein

Season 2:  Lerner & Loewe

Season 3:  Stephen Sondheim

Season 4:  Andrew Lloyd Weber

Season 5:  Barbra Streisand

Season 6:  Movie Musical Madness!

Season 7:  Political Rundown (Cabaret, Ragtime & more)

Bonus episodes:

• Schmigadoon, Season 1
• Schmigadoon, Season 2
• Steven Spielberg's West Side Story
• The Music Man (Pride Edition!)
• Sondheim & Judaism

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Check out some of our all-time favorites!

• Phantom of the Opera
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
• Jesus Christ Superstar!
• Schmigadoon! (Season 1 / Season 2)
• West Side Story!
• Yentl!
• Frozen!
• Barbie!

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Meet the Hosts:

Nathan LeRud is a native Oregonian, a pastor’s kid, and a musical theatre geek. With degrees in theology (General Theological Seminary) and English (Whitman College), his great loves are teaching the Bible, exploring Oregon history, attending vintage matinees at the Hollywood Theatre and finding the intersection of popular culture and religion. Nathan is currently Dean of Trinity Cathedral in Portland, Oregon. He also knows how to clog.

Peter Elliott has loved musical theatre his whole life. At age 12, he appeared as Oliver Twist in a semi-professional production of Oliver! During his time as Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver, British Columbia, it was the location of many musical theatre productions, including a memorable three night revue of the work of Stephen Sondheim September in the Cathedral with Sondheim, and Jubilation: 125 Years of Musical Theatre.

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Never miss an episode! Sign up for our email list to get updates when new episodes are released, info about upcoming special events, and more.

________________________________

Continue the conversation with us on Instagram (@gospelofmt).

Nathan and Peter welcome Ian Farthing, Vancouver-based actor & director and one of the original London ushers for the West End Production of Starlight Express (1984). We explore the theology & themes of Starlight Express – as well as Lloyd Webber’s more recent musical Sunset Boulevard (1993).

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We talk about:

– Theatre as a vocation, and how vocations – religious or artistic – change over the course of a life.

– Where does “the power to move” come from – and how do we learn to run the race with integrity?

– Donald Trump? – Who knew (other than Peter!) that Trump’s favorite film is Sunset Boulevard?

– Nothing: We gossip about our favorite Norma Desmonds, and come to no real theological conclusions (but we do know we love flannel on a man!)

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You’ll hear:

– Excerpts from the original cast recording of Starlight Express (1984)

– Betty Buckley performing “With One Look” live at Carnegie Hall (2006)

– Patti LuPone singing “As If We Never Said Goodbye” and “The Lady’s Paying” from the Original London Cast Recording of Sunset Boulevard (1993)

– Rex Smith & Anita Louise Combe singing “Sunset Boulevard” & “Too Much In Love To Care” from the Canadian Cast Recording of Sunset Boulevard (1996)

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Never miss an episode! Sign up for our email list to get updates when new episodes are released, info about upcoming special events, and more.

________________________________

Check out some of our all-time favorites!

• Phantom of the Opera
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
• Jesus Christ Superstar!
• Schmigadoon! (Season 1 / Season 2)
• West Side Story!
• Yentl!
• Frozen!
• Barbie!

________________________________

Continue the conversation with us on Instagram (@gospelofmt).

We descend into the depths of the Paris Opera for the 1986 musical phenomenon The Phantom of the Opera – a troubling story about abuse, lust, and the power of music.. and one of the most successful & beloved musicals of all time.

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We talk about:

– The Phantom:  Is the Phantom (or "Erik" as he’s known in the original novel) a serpent or a savior?

– The Ick Factor:  What is this relationship between Christine and the Phantom? An abusive mentor relationship? Forbidden love? Artistic partnership? Or is it just a classic Gothic obsession?

– Power & Patriarchy:  How did power and patriarchy operate in the Victorian world of the Paris Opera – and in the 1980s world of rock musicals?

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You’ll hear:

– Michael Crawford, Sarah Brightman and the cast of the 1988 Broadway Cast Recording.

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Never miss an episode! Sign up for our email list to get updates when new episodes are released, info about upcoming special events, and more.

________________________________

Check out some of our all-time favorites!

• Phantom of the Opera
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
• Jesus Christ Superstar!
• Schmigadoon! (Season 1 / Season 2)
• West Side Story!
• Yentl!
• Frozen!
• Barbie!

________________________________

Continue the conversation with us on Instagram (@gospelofmt).

Peterskins & Grumblethaniel (Peter & Nathan) ascend to the Heaviside Layer for a close theological reading of one of the strangest, silliest, and most sensational mega-musicals ever to tread the boards: the much-beloved and much-reviled 1981 spectacle that is CATS.

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We talk about:

– Names (cats & humans!) – the names that culture and society give us, and the ineffable name that is known only to God.

– Are the cats the Seven Deadly Sins? – and whether or not this is a morality play (...it might just be a show about cats)

– The power of memory and finding meaning in moments of happiness (and the deeply theological question: “does the right cat die?”)

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You’ll hear Betty Buckley, Ken Page, Terrance Mann, and the cast of the 1983 Broadway Cast Recording.

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Never miss an episode! Sign up for our email list to get updates when new episodes are released, info about upcoming special events, and more.

________________________________

Check out some of our all-time favorites!

• Phantom of the Opera
• Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
• Jesus Christ Superstar!
• Schmigadoon! (Season 1 / Season 2)
• West Side Story!
• Yentl!
• Frozen!
• Barbie!

________________________________

Continue the conversation with us on Instagram (@gospelofmt).