[title]
Well, hello there. I’m Adam Feldman, the theater editor and chief theater critic at Time Out New York. Here at TONY, our goal has always been to guide readers toward the best that the city has to offer—and, more than that, to help them appreciate what makes those things the best. In the 22 years that I’ve been covering theater for Time Out, that guidance has taken ever-changing forms, and as we move into the new year, I am delighted to announce a new one.
Starting this week, we are launching a free weekly YouTube podcast series called Sitting Ovations—hosted by me, Adam Feldman!—that is devoted to taking deeper dives into the productions we’ve recommended, through in-person interviews with playwrights, directors and other people who have played essential roles in the creation of those shows. We’ll be discussing the themes and structures of plays and musicals, looking at their histories, their development processes and the decisions that have been taken along the way.
I want to get into the details and geek out with top theater artists about their work: to learn more about it, to learn more about them and to amplify creative voices at a time when the noisiness of the world often threatens to drown them out. My hope is that these talks will serve as introductions to the works in question and, for people who have already seen them, provide ways to understand them more deeply. Also, I think it'll be fun.
We have lined up a killer slate of guests for the first few weeks of the Sitting Ovations pod. On the inaugural episode, I am joined by one of the preeminent Broadway composers of our age: Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the scores for Wicked and Pippin (among many other shows), and who is here to discuss the enchanting new revival of his 1976 musical The Baker’s Wife alongside that production’s director, Gordon Greenberg. You can watch that first episode here.
The second episode, which drops next week, is an in-depth interview with intellectually voracious playwright Bess Wohl about her current Broadway drama, Liberation, which looks at second-wave feminism through a rear-view mirror. That will be followed, in weeks to come, with ones featuring Ragtime director Lear deBessonet, who has just taken over as the artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater, and the Marjorie Prime team of playwright Jordan Harrison and director Anne Kauffman.
New episodes of Sitting Ovations debut every Wednesday in a devoted section of Time Out’s YouTube channel. I hope you’ll join us there.
