Video: Mike Isaacson Shares Highlights of the MUNY's 105th Season

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Welcome to Backstage with Richard Ridge. The Muny, which is the nation's largest outdoor musical theater

is about to kick off their sensational 105th season. And to tell us all about it is The Muny's Artistic Director and Executive Producer, Mike Isaacson

Hey Mike, how are you? I'm great, Richie. How are you? Now tell me where you are. It looks nice and sunny where you are

It's very sunny. So I'm in my office and I don't know what left right happens

but the lot is, as my hands go in there, and the stage

And we are in it. Half the set of Beautiful is outside my window

The rehearsal halls are going. All the crews are here. It's the moment. It's the week where suddenly Brigadoon is open

And everybody's here and it's very exciting. I love that you compare it to Brigadoon because it must be

The winter it sits there. It's all wrapped up. And then all of a sudden, you know, springtime hits and all of a sudden, you know

the paint jobs go up and everybody... Brigadoon opens and The Muny's on its way to its 105th season

You know, it's a little surreal. I would think this is my 12th season. I would think after all this time I would get used to it

But, you know, because we spend nine months for three months and everything's in our heads

and it's conceptual and it's on spreadsheets and it zooms and everything

And then it becomes human and flesh and real and. Spirits and souls and talents, and it's always surprising

Like, oh, yeah, we're doing this. We were all because everyone really begins arriving today

Today's Wednesday, right? Yeah. And we were all last night like sitting around like, OK, I guess we're ready

Here we go. Well, let's talk about this. The one hundred and fifth season

That's pretty amazing. What does that number mean to you, Mike, for The Muny

You know, it's just a tribute to this city and this community that, you know

the the the idea for the Muny came from a mayor and it was the idea of citizenship and participation and access

And the fact that this city and community has supported it and made it a part of its lives for one hundred and five years is really what that is

There's nothing else like it in the country. And, you know, that's such a gift

It's such an obligation. It's, you know, it's a pretty heavy weight. You know, you know, don't screw it up, but it really speaks to being a part of people's lives

You know, that's the gift of this theater. And I talk to people coming who've never been here before

You know, they come in and they're like, what do you have for us tonight

And there's such openness and such joy. And, you know, they've seen a lot of musicals

So, you know, it's a high bar. And and and just the the, you know, acceptance or the idea of all these people that we're seeing here

And we know there's some people back there and some people even further back there. They're all sort of sharing their gifts. And it's for us

It's a very powerful force because you can't. You you're always the civic idea is always embedded in the artistic endeavor

Right. So it's all one thing. And, you know, particularly this moment we're living right now, society, politically, whatever

The Muni is a space where everybody walks in knowing I'm going to be with people very different from me

And that's great. You know, you just have such, you know, economically, sociologically, you know, race, gender, everybody's here

Right. And everyone's loving that, that they're going to be with people different from them because we're all experiencing this thing together

So, you know, it's a it's a powerful idea. But see, that's what the arts do. You bring everybody of different nationalities and races and and economical, you know, backgrounds, everything

And they all just come in there and everybody has this incredible journey, the same journey they go on when you put these incredible shows on something you pride yourself on at the Muni, which I think is amazing, is you ask your audience to pick the shows for your season

Yeah, we do all during the season. It used to be at the last show of the season

And now because of technology, it's online and there's a QR code in the theater. But, you know, we give them a list of like 30 shows and sort of rank in that

And and, you know, people keep lists and then we do the announcement. There's betting pools. How many do they get right? And it's pretty funny

But yeah, you get it. You get a real sense of. What's there and what they're interested in, it's interesting because I'm never surprised by the results, you know, because you sort of get these categories and that

And then the other thing is that's a beautiful audiences. They don't know what they don't know. So like something like chess, you know, I keep calling it the greatest musical you've never seen

And they're all very excited, you know, and listening, going online and hearing the music. So there's a great openness to the new, too

So it's sort of, you know, my my my hope is if you're a Muni subscriber and you're giving us the gift of seven summer nights of your time and your family's time, that we're going to give you a great adventure

That it's going to be one thing one week and something very different the next and a great variety. The whole thing should be a feast, a feast for the soul by the end of the season

And that that seems to be really resonating with people. They're up for the adventure

Yeah. Well, let's talk about this incredible season, which kicks off with Beautiful, the Carole King musical. How excited are you? Tell us about Beautiful

Yeah, it's great. You know, it's it's one, you know, soon. And it has it's interesting. It has Muni roots because the lead producer of it was Paul Blake, who was here before me

And he developed it after he left the Muni and Mike Bosner, you know, and there's a lot of, you know, St. Louis co-producers. So it's sort of a homecoming to do it here at the Muni

And Sarah Shepard, who's playing the lead for us, got her equity card at the Muni and was part of the Broadway company. And so there's a lot of beautiful, you know, sort of themes and moments contained in us doing it here and opening our season with that

I think, you know, our director is Marsha Milgram Dodge, who's incredible. And as soon as she heard a whisper that, you know, it was it was coming up, you know, she called me and she was like, you know, that's my story

You know, and she understood this woman and and the family she grew up in and the relationship with her mother. And there were things that she's so excited about to

Tell the way we tell the story on our stage, it's it's very exciting. And then we have the gift of Jared Spector, who created the part on Broadway, is coming here to play it here

Incredible Jackie Burns, who I worked with, you know, on If Then is here. So it's incredibly exciting cast. And, you know, the thing the thing about the the jukebox musical, the popsicles, as I like to call them

You cannot underestimate the theatrical, the theatrical communal power of 10,000 people knowing we all shared this at once in our lives. And here we are sharing it again

It goes to a very, very deep sense of community and experience and life check that feels particularly in our theater, even bigger and even more, you know, because we're at a time where our our experience seem to be smaller and we're sort of all being pulled this way

But when you gather everybody for something that was sort of a cultural moment or an era, it just has a really interesting power in this theater

Yeah, I love popsicles. I'm going to use that from now on. I love popsicles. I mean, like I said, because, you know, something like beautiful Carole King, I heard her albums in my sister's room

The stereo was in her room and I was like, oh, my gosh, we all know where we were when we heard certain songs of this. And I'm sure with your audience, it's grandparents, parents, kids, everybody

I mean, kids hear these songs all the time now on the radio. We were brought up with this. So, so beautiful place through when? June 12th through the 18th, right? Yes

Okay. So then what's coming up next? You have Disney's Beauty and the Beast, right? I mean, Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, Tim Rice. I mean, talk about having Disney's Beauty and the Beast there next

Well, you know, we all know this was, you know, Disney's first glorious entry into Broadway. And, you know, it just, they, you know, they hit it out of the park. And it's a great story. What Linda Wolverton did for the adaptation of the stage, the very smart idea

She, she came up with about changing the idea of the transformation just gives it this incredible theatrical power. You know, Menken and Ashman, I mean, the height of their powers. And, you know, we have the incredible John Tartaglia directing

And, you know, Johnny's been a part of the Muni family now for my entire journey here. And he's just brilliant at the fairy tales, at the myths, at the stories, because he just fundamentally knows what the audience is hoping for when they sit in their seats and what that journey needs to be and how to tell the truth

It's so powerful and he's so generous and smart with his companies. Everybody's so inspired. It's just, he's just remarkable at it. He did Mary Poppins for us last summer and it was just, just spectacular

So, you know, to get his vision and, you know, his puppet background with Henson will have a whole sense of puppetry and then we can do the thing that only the Muni can do. And, you know, we're going to have like, it's going to end up being like 80 people on stage

So, Be Our Guest is going to be that thing of your dreams, like, oh my God, there's even more people and there's more forks and more plates and, you know, because it's meant to be about excess, right? You know, so let's go for it. And we can do that here. We can go to the top and then go even further than you possibly think we can, which is so joyous because it turns everybody into a child

That's the genius of the, you know, the Disney canon. If you get it right, everybody in that theater is a child and they experience that together

And then the other thing I say to the companies of these shows, and, you know, I don't mean to diminish it as a stump speech, but it's true that with this production each night, there will be like 2,000 kids and 1,000 adults who have never been to the theater before

And this is our chance to open the door, invite them in, show them what's possible, give them a sense of belonging, a sense of wonder, all those things. And, you know, that invitation is just incredible

So, it's always inspiring to these companies because I always say, just imagine that first time you walked in the door. That's what we're doing here. That's what this is. And, you know, it's great

It's funny when you mentioned it because I was thinking I was going to say, Oh my God, I could only imagine what Be My Guest is going to look like. You know, a table service of 24, you know

Oh yeah. 24. Oh, please. We have more forks and more spoons than that, right

It's a whole catering team, you know. Yeah, I love it. So, Beauty and the Beast is running from June 22nd through the 30th, which is really great. Talk about incredible cast you have in that. Ashley Blanchett as Belle, Ben Crawford who just closed The Phantom on Broadway as The Beast, Clayborne Elder as Gaston, Anne Harada as Mrs. Potts

I mean, what a cast you brought out for that. So, that's going to be amazing. You start to talk about chess. I mean, chess is one of my favorite musicals. I mean, you're bringing chess to the beauty

Yeah, yeah. This began, you probably don't know this, but St. Louis is actually the home to the International Chess Hall of Fame and has an incredibly active chess club, the St. Louis Chess Club that has education and it's a worldwide center

It moved to St. Louis, I want to say about 10 or 15 years ago. And in the basement of the building is where they literally worldwide live broadcast all the major, I don't even think broadcast is the right word, whatever they're all doing these days, the world chess

It's this huge center in St. Louis. And they've just done a remarkable job and I had such admiration for what they were doing in the community and I ran into somebody involved and I said, look, I've always had this dream of doing chess at the Muny and they were like, we're in

So, I mean, this started way pre-COVID about a partnership and how we could figure it out. So, I'm very grateful to them

And, you know, as I've said to people, it's the greatest musical you've never seen, you may have heard it, you know, because that music is just sensational and it's a, we all have that black album and everything and we trace the huge London success to Broadway, which didn't work out that well and then the national tour and, you know, there's whole websites dedicated to every chess variation in that

So, we're really excited. I've got, you know, the incredible Josh Rhodes and Lee Wilkins helming it and we're using the London script, the, you know, that which is sort of when people ask me essentially what the PBS concert version is, is sort of where it is at

They're preparing, I believe, another new script in hopes for a Broadway production, maybe next season next, I don't know, I keep hearing rumblings of it

So, we're just thrilled to be able to do this and it's exciting to introduce everybody something they don't know and that, you know, when you tell people it's the music people from ABBA, I was like, they're like, oh, you know

So, it's great. And it was, again, for a generation of musical theater lovers, this is a touchstone. This is a thing

So, all my peeps are coming from all over the country because they want to see Chess at the Muny and, you know, when we did our renovation, our stage renovation in 2019, we have a whole video component now that is going to make this show so exciting and the ability to tell the story

So, yeah, it's really exciting. I just love that the Chess Champion of the United States, the championships take place there because I had Kofi last week and Kofi said, we're doing Chess here, which is so great

Now, that runs from July 5th through the 11th. Right. And then you're bringing back an incredible classic West Side Story. I mean, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Lawrence, Leonard Bernstein, I mean, Jerome Robbins

Yeah, it's, you know, it's, you know, in my sort of way too deep in my head thing

Look, we're about to approach, however we want to define it, really the first century of American musical theater, right

And as we go further and further, much like operas in their day, as we get further and further, there are, and this is not a negative thing, there are very few that really will transcend time and be for the ages

Sondheim used to talk quite eloquently about that. Musicals are written for their day and their time

You know, I think West Side Story is one of them. There is an essential beauty and power and greatness and its ability to be a musical and that incredible music and Jerome Robbins, you know, landmark choreography

So it's very exciting. This is our first production in a decade

I did it in my 2013 season so it's really interesting to return to it after a decade. And we've got the incredible Rob Baggero who's done such extraordinary work on our stage. He's directing and then Parker Essay is doing the choreography, you know, the majority of which is the Robbins choreography with adaptations for our stage

And then, you know, the incredible music director, Jim Moore, who just, and we'll have that full Muny orchestra. It's 33 pieces

You know, and, and yeah. It's funny that you're saying certain musicals are timeless with everything that's going on politically in our country and everything else. I mean, West Side Story could have been written yesterday

You know, it's interesting because it's also locally, our beloved Ken Page, you know, Broadway's Ken Page, and it's been a part of Muny. I actually haven't had him on stage for a few seasons for, you know, he had other commitments and parts working out

And he did Doc in 2013 and he called me and he said, I would really love to play Doc again. That would give me great meaning because of the story and how much he loves the show, but also, you know, the ability to say the line, why do you kids always act like there's a war going on

Which is literally remaining the question of our day. I've just, I don't, right before this interview, I just sort of scanned the news and saw this horrifying thing that's been going on with Target and that like, why does this hatred not stop

Why does it continue and who are we? And this show, you know, asks us that question and we need to be asked that question all the time because we do not have the answer yet

Well, I'm sure it's going to be stunning. That runs from July 15th through the 21st. And then we're back to Howard Ashman and Alan Menken with Little Shop of Horrors. I could only imagine what Mushnik or, you know, Skid Row is going to look like at the Muny

It's pretty, the set design is amazing. And we're so, well, it's Maggie Burrows is our director and she's, this is now her third show at the Muny and she's so talented and her company's, she has a whole complete vision and she's working with William Carlos

who's another sort of tech, he's the choreographer and, you know, it is such a strange, wonderful show that people love and you just have to get the tone right, right? You don't get right at syncs and stuff and she's just so great at understanding what it needs to be

And then our puppets are by, you know, the puppeteer who did Into the Woods and James Pertise and you're not going to believe these puppets. Like when we put out these images and the final puppet is truly insane and we're going to involve all the Muny teens in the puppeteering and just make it crazy and epic and the cast is insane and it's going to be a lot of fun

I can only imagine how big Audrey 2 is going to be

Oh, trust me, however big you're thinking, it's bigger. Totally. That's there from July 25th through the 31st and then you're doing Rent. Yeah

Rent, one incredible season, running from August 4th through the 10th. I mean, tell me why, everybody wanted to see Rent there, right

I mean, this is the first, this is the, it's Muny premiere. You know, there were years past where we tried to do it, but rights weren't available. I mean, the thing's been on tour forever for, you know, our productions and that. And, you know, what can you say? It, you know, it changed a generation, inspired a generation

It's a great piece of Broadway, of musical theater, of, you know, that, that music and that score and the story now is, you know, it's, it is timeless. It is, it is greatness. And so, you know, we worked last season, Lillian Brown, who I just found out this morning, won a, what's the DC awards? Helen Hayes award. Yeah

For a production down there, she's directing this and, you know, did such an extraordinary job on The Color Purple and, and Brianne, the choreographer, just, it was a great team. And, you know, the thing about Rent, that's glib, I would say when you're dealing with something like that is that the, it's all in the casting and it's all in everybody just living it and being it and telling the truth and that it does the work for you

You don't have to do anything to it. It's just finding the truth of that story, the power of those people, those young people finding their place, dealing with the loss and tragedy surrounding them, you know, poverty, disease, growing up, love all of it, you know, and, you know, it's, it's rare that a musical just never fails to move an audience and Rent always moves an audience

It unleashes something very special in their humanity. It's greatness. I can only imagine what that's going to be like under the moonlight. Yeah

Pretty special. And then you're closing out the season with Sister Act, another Alan Menken, Glenn Slater

Who doesn't love, I know, but it was totally random, but it's like, oh, the Alan Menken season. I mean, who doesn't love a dancing disco? None. I mean, come on. Totally

You know, the show's a delight. And I, you know, our two leading ladies, Brianna Marie and Mamie Parris are just, I cannot wait to see them go into this. And the cast is really exciting. And it's, you know, it is a truly fun show

It gives the audience joy and delight and laughter. And it's sort of a great breezy way to end the season. And it's the incredible Dennis Jones with his associate, Barry Busby, who is creating the whole thing. And, you know, Dennis has many times played this stage like a Stradivarius

He just knows how to create in the space for the audience. And, you know, he leads with such style and joy and fun. I can't wait

So Sister Act is August 14th through the 20th. You know, what an incredible season you have put together. But I wanted just to talk about, you know, the Muny's audience each season. You get something like over 350,000 audience members. What that means to you and the mission of the Muny

Oh, wow. Um, that's a good question. It means a lot. It means a lot. It's both an incredible opportunity and a way

You know, the one thing about leading an institution is the lights better be on when you leave. Which, you know, is underestimated of how hard for any institution, art museums, theaters, you know, that. I think what's most important to me now, and that's a question I have to ask myself every year going into it

Like, OK, what is this year? What is this moment? And I am more aware now. You know, last couple of years were post pandemic in a sense, and I understood what that moment needed to be. It surprised me and surprised everybody. That's a stupid thing

But I sort of was like, oh, I know what this what's required now. And now it's a new question. And I feel what's imperative right now is this fundamental celebration of gathering of us, everyone different being together and being in a union for three hours on a summer night

It's necessary. We need to show the world it's possible. And that it's because they're there to witness a musical, which is the greatest American art form. I know you can make the argument for jazz, but I'm going to go with musical theater because that's who I am

It is our gift to the world. And so those two things and it is, you know, I try to explain the musical is the ultimate democratic ideal. Right. You have all these forms that in any logical sense don't belong together, that all must come together and figure out how to to create something that appears as one. Right

Is there any more perfect metaphor for what we're trying to be as this young nation still. There it is. Here it is. You know, it's in Little Shop, it's in Beautiful, it's in West Side, it's in all of them. And that sense and that idea feels so important to me right now at 105, that we all are aware of that and doing that and owning that. This is who we are and this is what we do

That's terrific. Everybody watching for tickets for the Muny season, visit muny.org. Congratulations on your incredible season that kicks off with Beautiful, closes with Sister Act. Mike, it's always a pleasure visiting us here at Broadway World because we've got fans all around the country, all around the world. Everybody go to the Muny

Please come this summer. You'll have a great time. Hey

Hey. Ha ha. Ha ha

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