Musical theatre podcast Piece by Piece will explore the iconic Carousel – named the best musical of the 20th century by Time Magazine in 1999 – in its next edition released today, Tuesday 21 April.
Piece by Piece is a new free musical theatre talk show featuring high-profile guests in conversation, hosted by award-winning Musical Director Joe Bunker (Rags, Park Theatre; Wasted, The Rink, Superhero, Southwark Playhouse and My Fair Lady, The Mill at Sonning).
Guests on the two-part two-hour Carousel episode include director Jo Davies (Carousel, Opera North, Barbican, Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris) and actors Keith Higham (Carousel, Opera North), Alex Young (Carousel, ENO) and Molly Lynch (Carousel, ENO).
Joe Bunker said: “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! and Carousel are over 75 years old but they are still revived frequently today. Do we accept them uncritically as quaint relics of a more innocent time? Do we dismiss them as out-dated pieces with nothing to say today? In ‘Piece by Piece’ we re-evaluate classic musicals, asking why they were innovative and successful in their day, and discuss the challenges of staging them in 2020.”
Piece by Piece, produced by Pint of Wine Theatre, was launched in January. Previous episodes – still available online – featured Guys & Dolls and Oklahoma! Those editions were recorded in front of a live audience, but the Carousel ‘Piece by Piece’ had to adjust to remote recording in light of the Coronavirus pandemic and social distancing rules. The team worked with acclaimed musical theatre recording studio Auburn Jam on mastering this recording.
The next remote-recorded episode will focus on West Side Story (due for release on Monday 4 May), and features the cast and creatives from recent Leicester Curve and Manchester Royal Exchange productions.
