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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The eloquent pianist used a work break imposed by the pandemic to learn something new: stage directing, a skill set she put to use in creating a multimedia recital. -
Sunday night, more than 15 months after they were originally scheduled, the 74th Annual Tony Awards were presented.
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The 74th Annual Tony Awards will be presented on Sunday, September 26 more than 15 months after they were previously scheduled. But these pandemic Tonys are by no means business as usual. -
Broadway is coming roaring back on Sept. 2 and one of the musicals to open that day is Hadestown. We follow the cast and crew as they remount the show and celebrate opening night.
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Isolated by pandemic last year, violinist Jennifer Koh asked prominent composers to donate tiny pieces, and to nominate fellow up-and-coming composers to receive paid commissions. -
The Showstoppers! exhibition in New York's Theater District showcases the work of an industry hit hard by the pandemic. Visitors can see more than 100 costumes — and watch artists hard at work. -
The first play to open on Broadway in more than a year, Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu's Pass Over tells the story of two young Black men dreaming of a better tomorrow in a world of police violence. -
The Boston Symphony Orchestra recently returned to its storied summer home, Tanglewood, after the pandemic canceled last season. With reopening comes normalcy, as well as an opportunity for growth. -
Jacob's Pillow had a particularly tough 2020, closed by pandemic and struck by a fire that consumed one of its theaters. This summer the dance center rises from the ashes, literally and figuratively. -
Known for its deft handling of canonical classics and contemporary music, the Attacca Quartet breaks new ground on a major-label debut featuring music by Flying Lotus, Squarepusher and other EDM acts. -
The Statue of Liberty has a little sister, a 9-foot casting from Bartholdi's original mold. It departed Normandy by boat and arrives in New York City soon for temporary installation on Ellis Island.
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Lincoln Center observes Juneteenth, now a federal holiday, with "I Dream a Dream That Dreams Back at Me," an ambulatory experience conceived by Carl Hancock Rux.
