Boston theaters have long served as a testing ground for new musicals headed to Broadway. Recent major works like Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (2015), The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (2011), and Waitress (2015)all premiered at the American Repertory Theater in Harvard Square in recent years before becoming sensations on the Great White Way. It’s a tradition that reaches as far back as 1943 (Oklahoma!) if not even earlier, and endures as recently as 2018 (Moulin Rouge! The Musical! and Jagged Little Pill both lit up Boston area stages that year).
The tradition continues as SpeakEasy Stage Company and Somerled Arts join forces to bring Bound for Boston to The Hub, a preview of no less than five new musicals that will play at the WBUR CitySpace at the Lavine Broadcast Center, 890 Comm. Ave in Boston, on Monday, Oct. 6. Among the fresh new works still in development are Lewis Loves Clark, a new take on the famous American explorers written by Mike Ross (book and lyrics) and Dylan MarcAurele (music); Proud Marys, described as “A seriocomic musical that busts wide open the myth of the model minority Asian-American family, one pop song at a time,” with book and lyrics by Jennifer Paz and music and lyrics by Anthony Federov; Present Perfect, “A spirited, uniquely American musical about immigrants and outsiders finding community in a New York City adult English class”; Amy Jo Jackson’s Hatchetation, “A comedic take on the life of the infamous Temperance Activist Carrie A. Nation”; and, in the headlines after a successful run at the Kennedy Center only for its touring production to be axed when the current administration took that cultural bastion over, the lively queer metaphor that is Finn, an undersea “ugly duckling” story by book and lyric writers Chris Dimond & Chris Nee and composer Michael Kooman.
It’s not just a peek at these five new musicals that is Bound for Boston – so is Broadway star Liz Callaway [ https://lizcallaway.com/ ], who will host an evening of conversation with the writers, with Boston-area actors performing songs from the works. Callaway is, of course, the star of legendary shows like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats and Evita, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boubil’s Miss Saigon, and Stephen Sondheim shows like Merrily We Roll Along and Sunday in the Park with George, but her roles in film and on television are just as extensive as her stage work, and her experience as the host of the Emmy-winning show Ready to Go has prepared her for the onstage conversations she’ll be having in Bound for Boston.
Liz Callaway gave her thoughts in a phone interview about the show, Sondheim, and reaching out to fans with her Substack: Between Flights
Kilian Melloy: You seem to have a special relationship with the songs of Stephen Sondheim.
Liz Callaway: Well, I made my Broadway debut in Merrily We Roll Along when I was 20 years old, and throughout my whole career, his music meant a lot to me. I had some fantastic experiences working with him. Shortly after he passed away, I put together a tribute show called To Steve with Love: Liz Calloway Celebrates Sondheim, which I then ended up making a live album of. A couple of years ago, it was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, which was a very unexpected and amazing surprise.
I sing his music every chance I get, and it’s very important to me to keep his legacy alive and his music alive for future generations. He meant so much to me, not just professionally, but so much of the rest of my career. The first Broadway show I saw when I was a kid was Company, and so, yeah, Sondheim is very, very important to me.
Kilian Melloy: What, for you, is the essence of singing and of song?
Liz Callaway: Oh, it’s all about storytelling. The first thing I look for in a song is the lyric. In fact, when I teach a master class, I say, ‘If you can do it, learn it from the lyrics before you learn the music, so you really know what you’re singing about.” I would much rather hear someone sing who doesn’t have the greatest voice in the world but really connects to a lyric. That, to me, is thrilling, and one of the reasons I love singing Sondheim is because of his brilliant lyric writing. I get to be smarter than I am in real life.
Kilian Melloy: Boston has been a major place for trying out and polishing shows. Have you performed there much yourself?
Liz Callaway: I don’t get to perform there as much as I would like, but I did a concert last weekend in Boston, at Riverside Theater Works. It was in Hyde Park. I performed with the Boston Pops several times.
I actually lived in Boston for three years and co-hosted a daily children’s program called Ready to Go for Channel Seven. A lot of people at the station didn’t know my background in theater when I first got there. I sang occasionally on the show, but it was fun doing something completely different for three years and interviewing. It was quite a challenge, but I enjoyed it. I loved living in Boston.
Kilian Melloy: Are you excited to visit The Hub of the Universe once again?
Liz Callaway: I absolutely am. It’s going to be fun to host this program. I’ve been hosting a program in New York called Bound for Broadway for maybe 10 years, 12 years, and I think that’s where they got the idea for me coming to Boston and hosting this evening, which I think is just wonderful. As you said, you have the major shows that have tried out in Boston, like Queen of Versailles, which is opening shortly on Broadway. But then there’s a lot of smaller shows that need a home — a place to be developed. When I lived in Boston, my husband — who is now a director but was an actor when we moved there — did some theater, and the talent in Boston is tremendous. I’m really looking forward to next Monday night.
Kilian Melloy: The evening will feature Boston artists singing songs from the new works. Will you be joining them in song?
Liz Callaway: I am going to sing a song at the end of the night. For the most part, I am going to be interviewing the writers, which I really enjoy because I’m so interested in the process of creation and how writers come up with their ideas. But I can’t just sit there and interview. I’m going to want to get up and sing something!
Kilian Melloy: It’s fun to listen to your commentary on the live album To Steve with Love. Will the show be like that in terms of how you engage with the audience?
Liz Callaway: Oh, yes. I really enjoy connecting with an audience in whether it’s a program like this or in my own concerts. I just finished a new show of Stephen Schwartz, and that may be my next album. There’s something about live theater or live music or cabaret, that is — there’s nothing like it.
Kilian Melloy: I think I would want to see all the shows featured in Bound for Boston.
Liz Callaway: Don’t they sound great? I was just reading the synopses. I want to know a little bit about the shows and the writers before I come up, but I also want to use my own curiosity in asking questions. I think the shows they’ve chosen sound interesting. And I’m looking forward to not just talking to the writers but also hearing the songs.
Kilian Melloy: From having read those synopses, do some of those shows appeal to you as an actor? For example, could you see yourself in the role of Carrie Nation in Hatchetation?
Liz Callaway: Yes, actually, that sounds really interesting. I’m very curious to see that. And, of course, I’m always on the lookout for songs to sing, even out of context from the shows. I want to do my Sondheim show in Boston; there aren’t a lot of venues, necessarily, for that. But I feel like once an audience [hears it] they go, “Oh, wow, I want more of this.” I think this is the same thing. If you are going to see a show in development, it would be so exciting to be among the first people to see a new work and to see it as it’s developed, and go, “It started here in Boston, and we were a part of that!” I hope this ends up being a successful program for the writers, for the Boston actors, and also for the audiences. It would be a win-win-win situation.
Kilian Melloy: You’re partnering with Speakeasy Stage, which has been such a champion of musical theater.
Liz Callaway: I’m excited that. First of all, I’m very honored that they asked me to come up. But it’s something I believe in, and hopefully it’s something that I can come up and see some of the shows that they end up doing.
Kilian Melloy: You mentioned wanting to maybe do a live album of your Stephen Schwartz show. What, besides that, might you have on your radar?
Liz Callaway: I’m on the road a lot with concerts, so I’m kind of all over the place, doing solo shows, working with my sister, Anne Hampton Callaway. I have a Substack newsletter that I’m hoping to sit down and write today called Between Flights, where I share music and recipes and do some writing. I find it’s another way to connect with people. In this day and age of social media, you can put things out, but this is a way to actually have a more personal relationship with people.
Liz Callaway hosts Bound for Boston on Monday, October 6, at 7:00 p.m. at WBUR CitySpace, 890 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston. For tickets and more information, visit the SpeakEasy Stage Company website [ https://speakeasystage.com/ ].
