Jeff Lunden

Audra McDonald, A Broadway Star Gone Roaming, Comes Home

Jeff Lunden — Sat, 18 May 2013 06:03:00 +0000

In the seven years since her last album, Audra McDonald has kept busy. She spent several years in Hollywood, filming the television series Private Practice. She's gotten divorced and remarried, absorbed the shock of losing her father in a plane crash and watched her daughter, Zoe, grow up from a kindergartener to a middle-schooler.

Last year, McDonald returned to New York, starred in Porgy and Bess and won a fifth Tony Award.

'Matilda' Brings Beloved Book To Broadway

Jeff Lunden — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:32:00 +0000

Matilda is a well-loved book by Roald Dahl, who's been called the greatest children's storyteller of the 20th century. It's about a much-put-upon little girl with tremendous gifts.

On Broadway, Old Shows And New Tricks

Jeff Lunden — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 08:33:00 +0000

When I was a teenager falling in love with the theater, I picked up a book called Broadway's Greatest Musicals. The sole criterion for inclusion was that a show run for at least 500 performances, which translates to about a year and a quarter.

How quaint.

I was thinking about that when I attended the 25th-anniversary performance of The Phantom of the Opera, now ranked as Broadway's longest-running musical ever.

Nora Ephron's 'Lucky Guy' And Tom Hanks Make Their Broadway Debuts

Jeff Lunden — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 21:50:00 +0000

Several years ago, when Nora Ephron handed Tom Hanks an early draft of Lucky Guy, her play about tabloid journalist Mike McAlary, he had a pretty strong reaction.

"I said, 'Well, that guy's sure a jerk!' I used another word besides jerk — I know what you can say on NPR," he says. "And she laughed and she said, 'Well, he kinda was.

Singing The Praises Of Pre-Dawn Walks

Jeff Lunden — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 07:18:00 +0000

Minnesota-born composer Maria Schneider has called New York home for more than 30 years, and she knows how to find nature in the middle of the city. Because her new album is called Winter Morning Walks, we walked to her favorite bird-watching spot in Central Park on a chilly February morning.

"This part right here in the Ramble and this Azalea Pond area is just teeming with warblers," Schneider says. "On a good day, you can see 18 warbler species in the morning, maybe even more.