Jeff Lunden

Audra McDonald, A Broadway Star Gone Roaming, Comes Home

Jeff Lunden — Sat, 18 May 2013 06:03:00 +0000

In the seven years since her last album, Audra McDonald has kept busy. She spent several years in Hollywood, filming the television series Private Practice. She's gotten divorced and remarried, absorbed the shock of losing her father in a plane crash and watched her daughter, Zoe, grow up from a kindergartener to a middle-schooler.

Last year, McDonald returned to New York, starred in Porgy and Bess and won a fifth Tony Award.

'Matilda' Brings Beloved Book To Broadway

Jeff Lunden — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:32:00 +0000

Matilda is a well-loved book by Roald Dahl, who's been called the greatest children's storyteller of the 20th century. It's about a much-put-upon little girl with tremendous gifts.

On Broadway, Old Shows And New Tricks

Jeff Lunden — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 08:33:00 +0000

When I was a teenager falling in love with the theater, I picked up a book called Broadway's Greatest Musicals. The sole criterion for inclusion was that a show run for at least 500 performances, which translates to about a year and a quarter.

How quaint.

I was thinking about that when I attended the 25th-anniversary performance of The Phantom of the Opera, now ranked as Broadway's longest-running musical ever.

Tom Hanks And Nora Ephron's 'Lucky Guy' Make Their Broadway Debuts

Jeff Lunden — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 21:25:00 +0000

Several years ago, when Nora Ephron handed Tom Hanks an early draft of Lucky Guy, her play about tabloid journalist Mike McAlary, he had a pretty strong reaction.

"I said, 'Well, that guy's sure a jerk!' I used another word besides jerk — I know what you can say on NPR," he says. "And she laughed and she said, 'Well, he kinda was.

Singing The Praises Of Pre-Dawn Walks

Jeff Lunden — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 07:18:00 +0000

Minnesota-born composer Maria Schneider has called New York home for more than 30 years, and she knows how to find nature in the middle of the city. Because her new album is called Winter Morning Walks, we walked to her favorite bird-watching spot in Central Park on a chilly February morning.

"This part right here in the Ramble and this Azalea Pond area is just teeming with warblers," Schneider says. "On a good day, you can see 18 warbler species in the morning, maybe even more.

For This Pair Of Clowns, 'Old Hats' Mean New Laughs

Jeff Lunden — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 23:20:00 +0000

Twenty years ago, theatrical clowns Bill Irwin and David Shiner collaborated on a Broadway show called Fool Moon — a giddy mixture of slapstick, improv and audience participation that proved such a success that it came back to Broadway for two more runs and toured both the U.S. and Europe.

Grand Central, A Cathedral For Commuters, Celebrates 100

Jeff Lunden — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 08:40:00 +0000

Friday marks the day that 100 years ago, Grand Central Terminal opened its doors for business for the very first time. The largest railroad terminal in the world, the magnificent Beaux-Arts building is in the heart of New York City on 42nd St.

The Composer Who Tested Fighter Planes And Partied With Sinatra

Jeff Lunden — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 07:03:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTUKHMlbYGA

A Cooler Roof For A New 'Cat'

Jeff Lunden — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 08:45:00 +0000

There are certain classic American plays that are revived on Broadway every decade or so, to let a new generation of actors and audiences discover them. Tennessee Williams' 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, running through March 30, is one of those iconic plays.

The last time Scarlett Johansson played on Broadway — which was also her first time — she won a Tony Award for her role as the young niece, Catherine, who unwittingly sets a tragedy in motion in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge.

A Vet's Haunted Homecoming In 'Water By The Spoonful'

Jeff Lunden — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 08:47:00 +0000

The cliche about writers is they should write what they know, and that old saw has certainly worked for Quiara Alegria Hudes. The 35-year-old playwright has mined her Puerto Rican family's stories into a series of plays, a musical and even a children's book.