Lin-Manuel Miranda and Weird Al Yankovic joined Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show March 2 to geek out over the release of Yankovic’s Hamilton parody “The Hamilton Polka,” an accordion-driven medley of the hip-hop score that includes “The Room Where It Happens,” “The Schuyler Sisters,” “My Shot,” “Wait For It,” and more.
Miranda and Yankovic performed a lightning speed lip-sync of the medley during the appearance. Check it out above.
Miranda revealed that he and Yankovic—one of his longtime idols—had been considering making “The Hamilton Polka” for a year before finally releasing it. Fallon and Miranda even got their own shot at lip-syncing a Weird Al classic.
The two discuss the creation of “The Hamilton Polka” below:
The original London cast recording of Stephen Schwartz’s Working is released March 2 by Ghostlight Records. Listen to the track “Fathers And Sons” below.
The musical, which premiered on Broadway in 1978, features a score made up of songs written by Stephen Schwartz, Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers, Susan Birkenhead, and James Taylor. This album is the premiere recording of a 2009 revision of the show, which includes new songs by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda.
To order the Working original London cast album, click here.
The recording captures Working‘s recent London premiere, which enjoyed an acclaimed run in summer 2017 at Southwark Playhouse. The cast includes Gillian Bevan, Dean Chisnall, Krysten Cummings, Siubhan Harrison, Peter Polycarpou, and Liam Tamne, as well as Patrick Coulter, Nicola Espallardo, Izuka Hoyle, Luke Latchman, Huon Mackley, and Kerri Norville.
The album was recorded live at Southwark Playhouse with additional recordings at Abbey Road Studios. New orchestrations are by Alex Lacaimore (Hamilton) with additional orchestrations by Martin Higgins.
In a statement, composer Schwartz said, “I’m delighted that not only has this superb cast of Working been preserved, but that there is finally an album that includes the wonderful new songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda. For me, an album of this new version of the show is long overdue and very welcome.”
A new adaptation of the Broadway docu-musical Sondheim on Sondheim, which has been re-orchestrated to showcase a full symphony orchestra, will receive its European premiere with the BBC Concert Orchestra March 15 at Royal Festival Hall.
Julian Ovenden
The cast will feature Tony Award nominee Liz Callaway, who appeared in the original Broadway cast of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, as well as Julian Ovenden, Ben Forster, Tyrone Huntley, Claire Moore, and Rebecca Trehearn.
Two-time Tony Award winner Michael Starobin, who orchestrated the original productions of Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George and Assassins, expanded his nine-musician arrangements from the 2010 Broadway premiere of Sondheim on Sondheim for the symphonic version that premiered with the Boston Pops in 2017.
Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart will lead the BBC Concert Orchestra for the one-night-only London performance.
Sondheim on Sondheim Symphonic Version retains most of the candid, in-depth video interviews with Sondheim that punctuated the Broadway incarnation, while streamlining its original two-act structure into a 100-minute presentation. The original Broadway production was written and directed by Sondheim’s frequent collaborator, James Lapine.
Callaway has been a special guest performer on Playbill’s Broadway on the High Seas cruises. Tickets are now on sale for the Broadway on the High Seas 10: Odyssey Through the Greek Isles cruise June 24–July 1, 2019, with a lineup of top Broadway stars to be announced. Call Judy Perl Worldwide for tickets at (844) 561-3625. Visit PlaybillTravel.com for booking and information.
Ghostlight Records celebrated the release of The Band’s Visit’s original Broadway cast album at Barnes and Noble February 23. The cast joined the show’s composer and lyricst David Yazbek for an in-store performance and fan photo session. The album of the new musical is produced by Ghostlight Records.
Flip through photos of the album release below:
See The Band’s Visit Celebrate Original Broadway Cast Album Release at Barnes and Noble
When you hear Andrew Polk speak in his own voice, you might be surprised. The actor’s American accent can be jarring after hearing his thick Israeli accent as patriarch Avrum in Broadway’s hit The Band’s Visit. “People are a little shocked when I come out [at the stage door] with my California accent,” he admits. “I’ve met a lot of Israelis and [that reaction] is gratifying.”
Andrew Polk Joseph Marzullo/WENN
Polk’s authenticity—in his accent and in the cultural nuances of his character—are, in part, thanks to his family. Not only is his wife, Israeli playwright Zohar Tirosh-Polk, the dialect coach on The Band’s Visit, life with her side of the family proved the best introduction to Israeli culture an actor could ask for.
Before Polk met his now-wife, he didn’t know much about Israel or its people. A self-described assimilated Jew, his image of Israel amounted to a lot of Jews and a desert. That image isn’t so far off from the setting of his Broadway debut in The Band’s Visit, but, having been welcomed into the Tirosh side of the family, he’s been able to imbue his role with cultural authenticity.
“I’ve [now] made many trips to Israel and really found it to be an incredibly rich, complicated, beautiful country, totally different than I thought,” says Polk.
In fact, as Avrum, the widower and Israeli patriarch of one of the households that welcomes in members of the titular stranded Egyptian Police band, Polk channels an Israeli patriarch from his own life. “[Zohar’s] father, Peter, passed away two years ago and I took a lot of characteristics he had—the warmth, the directness, the no-bullshit culture,” says Polk.
As a subtle reminder of the bundle of contradictory characteristics, Polk hangs a picture of a sabra fruit on his dressing room mirror. “I think it’s a great metaphor for Israelis because they can be kind of prickly on the outside, but inside they’re sweet and warm,” he says.
But Polk also found inspiration in his family when it came to mastering the Israeli accent and even his character’s physicality. “I plant my feet in the ground and I start walking like a bull,” he says. “That gets me into the physical vibe of the people and this character, and then the sounds fall into place.” Not to mention Polk and many of his castmates start talking like an Israeli beginning with the half-hour call.
Polk brings a simultaneous gentleness and energy to the role. As a widower, Avrum feels as lonely as any of the other characters in this show about reaching out to your fellow human, but he also represents a vigor and unrealized zest for life in his big number “The Beat of Your Heart.”
“You feel that it sets the table for the themes in the show,” Polk says of the number. “These Israelis and Egyptains in that scene in that song are finding connections through music, through jokes, through love and I do feel something change [in the audience].” But mostly, he’s thrilled to be able to shine a light on a culture (and a man) he holds dear.
“The Band’s Visit [Off-Broadway] happened right after [my father-in-law] died and it really feels like he has something to do with it,” he says. “Here I am, a fully assimilated Jew who has never really done that many musicals in a hit Broadway musical playing an Israeli grandfather and that’s who he was. It feels like maybe he’s looking after me.”
Before Frozen kicks off its Broadway premiere February 22, get a taste of what’s in store as the cast and creative team discuss the new Disney musical in the video above.
Patti Murin and Caissie Levy with Jacob Smith Deen van Meer
Frozen fans will recognize plenty, including the beloved characters and tunes (including one particularly memorable anthem), but new surprises await as well. “I’ve been given the freedom, as a director with the creative team, to not look over our shoulder, but also go much further,” says Michael Grandage. “We’ve been given the freedom to explore.”
That freedom relieves some pressure from the cast, who step into roles that were made instantly iconic with the 2013 animated hit. “There’s a certain level of nerves and anxiety that come along with that, but it’s mostly just been so joyful,” says Caissie Levy, who takes on the role of ice queen (and “Let It Go” belter) Elsa.
Levy continues, “People are going to see a lot more of the intricacies of what Elsa is dealing with…[composers] Kristen [Anderson-Lopez] and Bobby [Lopez] have musicalized key moments for Elsa that allow the audience to understand why she does what she does a little more.”
The musical is the first Frozen adaptation to expand upon the original story, with the help of a dozen songs written specifically for the stage and a book by original screenwriter and co-director Jennifer Lee. Anderson-Lopez expects the new material to assist in “telling a story that families will experience and hopefully open doors between them.”
Patti Murin hopes the marriage of familiar and unexpected shines in her performance as Anna: “I only want to present her to the world in the best possible way—in the way they’re going to recognize and love—but also see a bit more of than they were able to in the movie.”
Frozen will open officially at the St. James Theatre March 22.
