Settling Scores: The Musical Theatre Podcast

It's no surprise that with the recent release of the movie version of Wicked, we here at Settling Scores have chosen to compare and contrast it with the original Broadway cast album we all know and love. However, you may be surprised to hear how much the guys disagree on everything from lyrics to casting to character arcs!

Also in this episode, Forrest and Stephanie act...

Join us down on Skid Row with our latest episode - "Somewhere That's Mean: Settling Scores Feasts on Little Shop of Horrors." Categorizing LSOH (with music by Alan Menken and lyrics/book by Howard Ashman) is a bit tricky. Here’s our best effort: it’s a genre-crossing cult classic chamber musical with elements of dark comedy, horror (obviously), and sci-fi with a ton of catchy Motown-inspired earworms ...

Once Upon A Time…

In this episode of Settling Scores, Lenny, Forrest, and Stephanie discuss Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s fractured fairytale mashup, Into the Woods. Classic stories like Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack and the Beanstalk are all featured in this surprisingly dark and twisty musical, with a bodycount rivaled only by Sondheim's Sweeney T...

 "Join us, leave your fields to flower Join us, leave your cheese to sour Join us, come and waste an hour or two Doodle-ee-doo"

In this episode of Settling Scores, we discuss the not-so-simple joys, the seriously strange (...left-handed fleas and balding griffins, anyone??), and the existential angst of Stephen Schwartz and Roger O. Hirson’s medieval musical, Pippin. Al...

"The Music Man" by Meredith Willson is a classic, big-hearted American musical that premiered on Broadway in 1957 and went on to win five Tony awards. We invite you to fritter away some time with us while we discuss the love (Forrest) and hate (Lenny) relationship we here at Settling Scores have with this show, which features several standards of the musical theatre canon suc...

Forrest and Lenny continue their discussion of the Tony Awards, this time focusing on Best Actress in a Musical award winners of the last twenty-three years. Using the power of math, Stephanie averages their picks and reveals our very own Settling Scores Diva Rankings™️, from worst to first. 

And join us ov...

In honor of Tony Award season, Lenny and Forrest debate the winners and losers of the Best Musical Tony grouped by decade with their usual friendly bickering and bantering...plus a surprising amount of agreement! We also explain Forrest's severe case of BAS - Bitter Award Syndrome.

And join us over on our F...

Join us for a dark and twisty tale of a dish best served very cold. The book is based on Swiss dramatist Friedrich Dürrenmatt's play, “The Visit of the Old Lady,” and the plot revolves around Claire Zachanassian (It just rolls off the tongue…), a widowed gazillionaire returning to her impoverished hometown to seek revenge on a man named Anton Schell who impregnated and ...

"Ragtime: The Musical," with music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and a book by Terrence McNally, is based on the 1975 novel of the same name by E.L. Doctorow. It's two-and-a-half hours of intense beauty and heartbreaking grief, and frankly, all three of us choked up a little while recording this episode. The (incredibly intricate) plot follows the intersecting lives of three groups in t...

"NINE" is a captivating musical that follows the story of Guido Contini, a famous Italian film director, as he navigates a mid-life crisis and creative block. Set in Venice, the musical delves into Guido's relationships with the various women in his life, including his wife, mistress, muse, and mother. Through vibrant music and compelling storytelling, "NINE" explores themes of love, lust, and the pu...

Content Warning: This episode contains a brief mention of an attempted suicide by one of the characters. 

Scoop yourself a bowl of ice cream, dab on some perfume, and make sure you’re in a “romantic atmosphere” dear friends, because in this episode, we’re delving into the musical “She Loves Me.” This show is one of several reincarnations of the 1937 play Parf...

"1776" tells the story of the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in...you guessed it...1776. The show premiered on Broadway in 1969 and went on to win three Tony Awards, including Best Musical. In this episode, we do a deep dive into the score, major recordings, and the movie, finding the fabulous and the funny in this amazing, irreverent take on our all-too-human fou...