The Incomparable

58 Random Pursuit: Musicals

Well friends, after four years of Corner of the Sky, this podcast is going on indefinite hiatus. But to leave on a high note, we’ve got a full game show episode! Moisés Chiullán, Brian Hamilton, David Loehr, Jean MacDonald, and Shelly Brisbin are competing in a custom version of Random Pursuit that’s ALL musicals.

Also, this episode includes a mini-game: try to count how many times Quinn makes a mistake! It turns out that Random Pursuit is a deceptively complicated game to keep track of, and Erika Ensign actually has superpowers.

57 Kill Your Mother, Cancel Your Bar Mitzvah

Yoni Weiss talks the charmingly dysfunctional family of Falsettos.

Highlights: masculinity, borrowing synagogue chairs, Chip Zien, high school productions of Elegies, maturation, regression, lesbians, family.

56 Another National Anthem

Margaret Hall talks the “most controversial musical ever,” Assassins.

Highlights: flashpoint memories, Assassins Creed, Kidz Bop, shoulder devil, 9/11, John Weidman, empathy.

Content warning: discussion of gun violence.

55 Bury Your Straights

Aaron Roberts talks the depressingly universal Follies.

Highlights: no one can stop my musical theater enthusiasm, nostalgia, the gayest musical without any homosexuality in it, summer camp, ghosts, Michael Bennett, Pirates of the Caribbean.

54 Luck Be A Lady

Philip Michaels talks the persistent classic Guys & Dolls.

Highlights: all in one place (except for Cuba), undercover cop, hijinks, female agency, Tom Hooper, revivals, Frank Sinatra.

53 Don’t Be Gay in Indiana

Holly Sansom talks the infectiously optimistic show The Prom.

Highlights: The Drowsy Chaperone, seeing theater for work, TV performances, girls kissing, we’re all lesbians, cringing, Glee.

52 Brandy’s Cinderella

Kat Largent talks the always-evolving classic Cinderella.

Highlights: Whitney Houston, musicals as popular music, revivals, award eligibility, casting movie musicals, onstage quick changes, basic but beautiful.

51 I’ll Ask Mom

Stanley Rose talks the charming satire/homage Something Rotten.

Highlights: Christian Borle, write what you know, the Black Death!, simple entertainment, fact checking with Mom, humming the songs.

50 Camp Counselor Christ

Kerri Kearse talks the “drum circle for the Lord” and/or musical Godspell.

Highlights: directorial freedom, Christian rock, belting about the Lord, baby George Salazar, Marianne Williamson, race in casting, parables, Jesus Christ Superstar, earnestness.

49 Finishing the Hat

Emily Clark talks the pointillist musical Sunday in the Park with George.

Highlights: Bounce, autobiographical musicals, putting it together, universal (or not), historical inaccuracy, Pulitzer Prizes, Mandy Patinkin.

48 You Oughta Know

Jhanelle Benton talks the unflinching rock musical Jagged Little Pill.

Highlights: Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, being overly attached to the cast, interpretative dance, fluid movement, Elizabeth Stanley, gushing about the ensemble, Christmas letters, jukebox musicals.

Content warning: discussion of sexual assault and drug abuse.

47 You’ve Got Mail

Emily Lewis talks the warm-hearted and delicious She Loves Me.

Highlights: Alabama, Hungarian writers, theater with teenagers, lack of communication, interesting dances, uninteresting dances, ice cream, lonely hearts.

46 Et Cetera

Jason Snell talks the deceptively complex The King and I.

Highlights: childhood, Yul Brynner, dresses, orientalism, they fixed some of the orientalism, complex characters, too-long songs, b-sides from The Sound of Music, etc, etc, etc.

45 Bobby is a Softboy

Allison Truj talks the alternately nihilistic and uplifting Company.

Highlights: Little Women (2019), Marriage Story (2019), cautionary tales, fish pants, aging poorly, Patti LuPone, getting broken up with at the intermission of Phantom of the Opera.

44 Maybe This Time

Lisa Schmeiser talks the flamboyant and doomed world of Cabaret.

Highlights: Schitt’s Creek, Chicago, Berlin as a character, the rise of fascism, acting like you’re bad at acting, stunt casting, ambiguity.

43 Prince Ali is a Scrub

Javier Matusevich talks Starkid and Twisted.

Highlights: Wicked, Cruella de Vil, Aladdin sucks, 1001 Nights, college students, in-jokes, making fun of what you love.

42 I’m The Queen of the Castle

Annette Wierstra talks international sensation Six.

Highlights: young writers, short shows, Edmonton, tours, rewriting the narrative, amazing dancers, big Eliza Hamilton energy.

41 Put on Your Sunday Clothes

Lauren Pokedoff talks the optimistic classic Hello Dolly.

Highlights: watching a whole Tony season, Bette Midler, sleeping on the street for tickets, strong women, Barbra Streisand, spectacle.

40 Digital Fur Technology

Brian Hamilton talks the fever dream that is Cats (both the stage and film versions).

Highlights: Personally victimized by Cats (2019), fully filmed Broadway performances, breaking the fourth wall, dance musicals, poetry, T.S. Eliot, JaSOn DEruloooo, offensive horniness.

39 Tell Everyone What’s Up

Highlights: dream casting, hope to theater kids, low budget costumes, Disney cleans up New York, it’s a metaphor, Susan Egan, gushing about Belle, toxic masculinity, 4D movies, drunk composer promises.

38 My Goddess Diane Paulus

Highlights: watching shows many times, well-rounded side characters, Sara Bareilles, She Used to Be Mine and Now I’m Crying, problematic relationships, movement based choreography, all-female creative team, motherhood.

37 Spooky Mormon Hell Dream

Highlights: satire, respect, disrespect, stereotypes, religion, a jumble of all things previously named, the actual Mormon church, Josh Gad, wholesome adult comedy, we’re taking this show so seriously.

36 We Brought Binoculars

Highlights: your OTP could never, emotionally devastating, everything is changing, it’s a metaphor, subway maps, crying on the podcast, universality through specificity, legacy, you got sad.

35 High School Musical: Grease

In lieu of a regular episode, this week we bring you a portion from our latest members only episode, in which Kerri Kearse and I developed high school theater seasons comprised entirely of shows that had to be heavily adapted from their original adult content. If you want to hear more, click on the link in the description to sign up for an Incomparable membership. We’ll be back next week with a regular episode!

34 Panicking in Scottish

Highlights: The poor man’s Rogers and Hammerstein, tartan, Oklahoma!, 18th century Scotland, dystopian hellscape, born in the wrong generation before it was cool, horny in the 40s, show tunes as popular music, old men playing bagpipes, happy endings.

Content warnings: murder, people in the 40s being super horny.

33 They Didn’t Have Tinder

Highlights: orphans, Les Mis, bargain prices at Macy’s, choreography awards, fifty children on the stage, Dodger!, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, music notation, mmmbop, children’s musicals and the bizarre plot lines wherein, My Fair Lady.

Content warnings: mention of murder, abuse.

32 Cold Dead Eyes

Highlights: America’s obsessions with orphans, Charles Dickens, curly hair, universal optimism, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Annie’s girl gang, dog hot takes, borrowing children, scam culture.

31 This Bops and is So Depressing

Highlights: what do you think musicals are, oh that’s morbid, The South, dream casting, celebrities on Broadway, vendetta against the Tony awards, Jake Gyllenhaal’s DMs, as the casting director for all productions of Parade I regret to inform you.

Content warnings: discussion of anti-semitism, lynching, murder; mention of rape.

30 Back to Being Petty

Highlights: I don’t know why any of that information was relevant, the movie was better(?), Jeremy Jordan, live action Aladdin, adapting movies into different movies, the original Be More Chill, The Swedish Chef, eight Tony awards for being the best trash, Death Note the musical.

29 I’m Twelve and These People Understand Me

Highlights: Alice Ripley… is probably tired, the love of my life Aaron Tveit, Spider Man: Turn Off The Dark, angst, Gossip Girl, midwesternize it, Twitter, Dear Evan Hansen, laughing about inappropriate topics.

28 GunBoats

Highlights: rebellious teen musical phase, my good friend Steve, who’s who of 70s Broadway, samurai, poison, bing bang boom Asian music, I’m happy, I’m the emperor, I’m a puppet.

27 10/10, Buzzfeed, Yes

Highlights: accents, “actors”, was that… just racist?, making fun of theater, air quotes, forced monkey motif, I love it it’s fun, Noises Off, poodles, title of show.

26 Weirdly Aggressive Hippies

Highlights: comedy people, middle school media, Avenue Q, the ultimate audience interaction, everything matters so much, spelling trances, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, stereotypes, puberty.

25 Moist and Worried

Highlights: what we may call today “gender equity,” non-musical, Cincinnati, proto-Terry Crews, my cool baby, sharing media across generations, a (not so) surprising amount of Hamilton talk, the kids are alright, columnists.

24 Jenna Rolan Calling

Highlights: fandom, it’S FROM JAPAN, listening to Pandora, crying at stage door, tumblr musicals, the Jonathan Larson Project, Quinn diverges to fangirl about Broadway producers, almost in my range… almost, seeing shows by yourself.

23 Hogwarts, But Green

Highlights: Stephen Schwartz, the book was (not) better, shallow layers, down with the patriarchy, Star Trek, Frozen, don’t say that about my daughter, dream casting.

22 Rubik’s Cube of Musical Theater

Highlights: Cole Porter, Ethel Merman, LCD Soundsystem (no, really), it’s on a boat, lots of different versions, rewriting the script, Glee, getting to Broadway shows on time.

21 Campy Rock’n’Roll Church

Highlights: midnight screenings, yelling at actors, intentionally bad, a bit unintentionally bad, Repo! The Genetic Opera, The Silly Gay Film, queer representation, MST3K, The Room, a lot of sacrilege.

20 Only Lesbians Wear Pants

Highlights: safe bets, The Disney Pattern, jukebox musicals, spoilers in the beginning, total love story, candelabra, special features, Come What May, Broadway transfers.

19 Little Bit of Murder

Highlights: bringing pride to the emoji name, metaphorical resonance, princesses, ever-changing versions, the progress bar, short runs, firewalls, Spongebob Squarepants.

18 Talking About It Makes Me Cry

Highlights: cars onstage, Audra McDonald, political relevance, diverging to dunk on Phantom again, stuffy white people, life changing theater, Hamilton (obviously).

17 Let Me Out!

Highlights: #Justice4IntoTheWoodz, creative theater interpretations, James Corden?, Sondheim vs. Webber, a thousand stars, fractured fairytales, leaving at intermission, 80s synth, shade to the Phantom, good good theaters.

16 No, Evan, No

Highlights: all downhill from the second Evan opens his mouth, emotional devastation, plays with music, family relationships, crying and singing, when you try your best but you don’t succeed.

15 A Mountain of Salt

Highlights: tap-dancing, problematic musicals, Bunheads, breaking elevators, undead ghosts, #giveusalloftheprofessionallyfilmedbroadwayshows, subversion and failed subversion, “modern” music, selective value in harmful media

14 Poetically Slimy

Highlights: People who write musicals hate you, Jamie apologists, Ohio, feelings, timey-wimey, Jeremy Jordan, autobiographical, a very sad musical.

13 Barely a Third Wall

Highlights: missing second, third, and fourth walls, alienation, criticizing everyone but yourself, changing the blocking, German names, Sweeney Todd, “edgy,” scoundrel. liar. thief.

12 Changing My Major

Highlights: the Bechdel test, tragicomics, gay teens, clothing choices, borrowing books, fun funeral songs.

Thank you to Brian Hamilton for editing this episode.

11 Feelings About Him and His Hair

Highlights: Lucas Steele, modern folk-pop, violin tattoos, great songs for not great people, problematic plots, real life controversy, Josh Groban, so many names.

10 One-Hit Wonder

Highlights: Mamma Mia, fascinatingly flawed, Cats, changing the book, Broadway flops, everyone is connected, American jerks, yogurt.

9 Electric Boogaloo

Highlights: jumps and twists and twirls, corner of the sky, I’m extraordinary, Patina Miller, circular plots, fourth wall and the lack thereof, belting, do not try this at home.

8 Mustache-Twirly Villains

Highlights: activism, movie adaptations, musical memes, tragedy in media, questionable casting decisions, “it’s not a happy musical”

7 I Thought We Connected

Highlights: bawling, secret musical theater iPods, selling out, context and lack thereof, dancing on tables, Rentheads, living in the moment.

6 Peak Audience Member

Highlights: high school theater people, angst, Pink Floyd, angst, Glee, angst, Cats, angst, soooo back to Spring Awakening.

5 Electronica Pop Version

Highlights: Traditiooooon, match wordplay, family tension, bottle hats, being complicit, reinterpretation of characters, 7th grade musical productions.

4 I Butchered Every Reference

Highlights: immortality, Broadway babies, the early deaths of the 2016-17 season, feel-good musicals that make you sob, problematic marriage proposals, ballet as plot, evil bananas.

3 Dark and Twisty Person

Highlights: High school history, hip-hoperas, Alexander-Hamilton-in-training, moving to Chicago, a (not) surprising amount of Rent conversation, gender-swapping, Wayne Brady.

2 One Thousand Stressed Out Couples

Highlights: Idealism, Canadian jokes, Tony Awards, Tim Hortons, plane choreo, did we mention that this is Canadian?

1 All You Need is Love and Other Stuff

Highlights: spectacular spectacular, the Phantom is problematic, altos are better than sopranos, the Phantom is Batman, it’s scrap metal, the Phantom is Andrew Lloyd Webber, media at face value.

0 Welcome to Corner of the Sky

Corner of the Sky, a new musical theater podcast, will be published every Saturday during June and July.

Music is “In Your Robotic Heart” by Nicolai Heidlas.