This podcast focuses on the new musical, The Devil and Tom Walker, written by Anthony P. Pennino, conceived by Yvonne Conybeare, with music by Rob Kendt. They are joined in a roundtable discussion of the play by Martin Denton.

The play is an adaptation of a short story by Washington Irving. Tony, as author, gets first dibs at giving a short synopsis of the play and Yvonne chimes in to give some insight as to why she thought it was an interesting play to do, especially how it resonates today.

Rob has some extremely fascinating things to tell us about the research that goes into creating music that has to be distinctly of its time.  Listeners then get a great treat.  Rob sings two selections from the show, accompanying himself on the guitar.  He deftly explains how and why the songs fit the show and the characters.

Martin resumes the discussion by asking how you go about casting a show with music almost as integral as acting.  Yvonne explains some of the process and adds that the only non singing role is The Devil, who in the original story had a strong presence, but actually appeared rarely.  In this adaptation The Devil is also the narrator, stepping in for the real narrator, Washington Irving.

Episode Links:

• The Devil and Tom Walker info on nytheatre.com
• Metropolitan Playhouse website

Download the podcast

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 6:21 pm and is filed under New Plays and Musicals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.