The Gospel of Musical Theatre

Who gets to tell the story?

It's the season finale, and it feels like a perfect time to travel back to 2015, when a blockbuster hip-hop musical about America’s founders took the world by storm.

That's right... Today, Peter and Nathan return to the room where it happened and consider the theology of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton.

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You’ll hear:

My Shot / Wait For It / The Ten Duel Commandments: Hamilton & Burr—like Valjean & Javert, like Jesus & Judas—represent oppositional forces, responding to similar circumstances with radically different approaches to life. They also each get a great “I Want” song.

Burn / Quiet Uptown / Say No To This: Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, Maria Reynolds, Angelica Schuyler Church and the various roles that women play in this story. What does forgiveness look like – and what does Eliza see at the end of the musical?

One Last Time / Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story: Few other musicals are so associated with presidential administrations as Hamilton is with Barack Obama. We think about the connections between the Hamilton project and the Obama project, wonder about the soft nationalism at the heart of this story, and think critically about the legacy of George Washington. Who gets to tell the story?

You’ll hear Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr, Phillipa Soo, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Christopher Jackson and the cast of the 2015 Original Broadway Cast Album. It won a Grammy.

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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.

We’ve got the Lutherans to thank for this one.

It’s the worst-ever name for a musical, but Peter & Nathan think that 2001’s Urinetown, with music and lyrics by Mark Hollmann & Greg Kotis, is worthy of your attention – and some sustained theological reflection.

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We talk about:

The show's origin story (thanks, Lutherans!) and its unfortunately timed Broadway debut on the heels of 9/11.

The politics of Urinetown – capitalist overlords versus the people's revolution, all painted in broad, satirical brushstrokes. Are there any responsible political figures in this show?

What is Urinetown? A prison for malefactors? A way for the powerful to prey on the vulnerable? Death? Despair?

"Following your heart" – What does that mean? And what if whatever your heart seems to be telling you turns out to be wrong?

The power of music (particularly Gospel music) to move us to action. Who "should" be singing this music, and who is it for?

 

You’ll hear:

"Too Much Exposition" / "What is Urinetown?" – satirical take-downs of conventional musical theatre tropes

"I See A River" / "Run Freedom, Run" / "Follow Your Heart" – Urinetown asks some complicated questions about love and justice. And the music is pretty dang good.

You’ll hear Hunter Foster, John Cullum, Jennifer Laura Thompson, Jeff McCarthy, Spencer Kayden and the Original Broadway Cast from the 2001 recording.

_________________________________________

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.

Somewhere beyond the barricade, is there a world you long to see?

There’s no more overtly theological (or more popular) musical than Claude-Michel Schönberg & Alain Boubil’s 1980 Les Misérables, based on Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel.

From Valjean and Javert to Eponine and Fantine, this musical crams more pathos, prayer, and bad wigs into three hours than any other musical we know. Do you hear the people sing?

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We talk about:

Prologue (the Bishop) / Stars / Javert’s Suicide – Javert, the police inspector, embodies a law-and-order version of the Christian gospel (shout-out to our Jansenist followers!) – and ultimately, the mercy he is shown destroys him. Are these competing atonement theories, or is there more subtlety in Les Mis’ treatment of the Christian gospel and its consequences?

I Dreamed a Dream / On My Own / A Little Fall of Rain – Fantine gets one, brief, shining moment before she dies (it's a weeper), and Eponine stands in for every alto who dreams of being the soprano – and then she dies, too. Why do most of the women in Les Mis end up dead?

Turning, Turning – "What's the use of praying if there's nobody who hears it?" In a musical where women are mostly prostitutes or virgins, the women’s chorus gives voice to one of the show’s darkest and most provocative theological questions.

Bring Him Home / Do You Hear the People Sing? – What does an evangelized life look like on the ground – and what does “somewhere beyond the barricade” really mean?

You’ll hear Colm Wilkinson, Phillip Quast, Lea Salonga, Michael Ball and Judy Kuhn from the 1995 “Dream Cast Recording.”

You’ll also hear Anne Hathaway sing “I Dreamed a Dream” from the 2012 film soundtrack because she won an Oscar for it, and attention must be paid.

_________________________________________

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.

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.

_________________________________________

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”.

_________________________________________

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.