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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A new play — directed and performed via Zoom — imagines workplace life at Russia's Internet Research Agency, a real life troll-farm indicted for its interference in the 2016 election.
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The dance company features work of Latinx choreographers, as well as a robust educational outreach program. It was just awarded a $4 million grant from the Ford Foundation.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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The Broadway actor was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in Bullets Over Broadway.Cordero had been working on a production of Rock of Ageswhen he developed symptoms of pneumonia.
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Broadway has been hit particularly hard by COVID-19. Theaters are shuttered indefinitely, millions of dollars have been lost, and some members of the community have been infected by the coronavirus.
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As venues across the country have shut down in response to the coronavirus, some theaters have made archival videos of the closed productions available online, for the cost of a ticket.
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Producers and theater owners say Broadway will stay dark until at least June 7, dealing a further blow to New York's biggest tourist attraction.
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Fiona is a 3-year-old, 1,300-pound hippo, and she's a growing girl. Her keeper, Jenna Wingate, is grateful to be able to work during the coronavirus crisis: "It feels good to be needed," she says.
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday announced a statewide ban of gatherings of more than 500 people. That includes Broadway's 41 theaters.