Jeff Lunden
Jeff Lunden is a freelance arts reporter and producer whose stories have been heard on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition, as well as on other public radio programs.
Lunden contributed several segments to the Peabody Award-winning series The NPR 100, and was producer of the NPR Music series Discoveries at Walt Disney Concert Hall, hosted by Renee Montagne. He has produced more than a dozen documentaries on musical theater and Tin Pan Alley for NPR — most recently A Place for Us: Fifty Years of West Side Story.
Other documentaries have profiled George and Ira Gershwin, Stephen Sondheim, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, Lorenz Hart, Harold Arlen and Jule Styne. Lunden has won several awards, including the Gold Medal from the New York Festival International Radio Broadcasting Awards and a CPB Award.
Lunden is also a theater composer. He wrote the score for the musical adaptation of Arthur Kopit's Wings (book and lyrics by Arthur Perlman), which won the 1994 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical. Other works include Another Midsummer Night, Once on a Summer's Day and adaptations of The Little Prince and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for Theatreworks/USA.
Lunden is currently working with Perlman on an adaptation of Swift as Desire, a novel of magic realism from Like Water for Chocolate author Laura Esquivel. He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
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It's hard to predict exactly how theater will come back after the pandemic, but here are a couple guesses: Fewer crowds, more collective imagination, and a focus on racial and environmental justice. -
The magazine given out at theaters isn't just a program, it's a cherished souvenir. The publication has doubled down on its digital offerings, and to almost everyone's surprise, it's doing quite well. -
Even before the age of social-distancing, composer and conductor Eric Whitacre had been leading an online chorus for a decade. Choir members say the connection they foster is more important than ever. -
Actors' Equity is allowing theaters in the Berkshires region of Massachusetts to put on performances this summer. The theaters plan two live shows with limited audiences and safety protocols in place.
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For 30 years, Shetler Studios provided affordable space in New York's theater district for rehearsals, readings, classes and auditions. The owners can't afford to continue because of the pandemic.
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McNally had suffered from lung cancer and pulmonary problems. He won his first Tony Award for Kiss of the Spider Woman. He also won Tonys for Love! Valor! Compassion!, Master Class and Ragtime.
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The success of Amazon Studio's Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has spawned a bus tour of some of the show's New York locations.
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Sometimes life imitates art. In a production of Fiddler on the Roof, which contains a meddling matchmaker trying to get couples together, the two real-life leads have fallen in love.
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The New York Philharmonic launches its season with a new music director and executive director. The Metropolitan Opera's season starts with a young music director. -
Actress Marin Mazzie has died of ovarian cancer at age 57. Mazzie had a three-decade career, with her breakout role playing Clara in Stephen Sondheim's Passion in 1994. She was in Ragtime, Kiss Me Kate and The King and I, among other plays.
