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.

Broadway To Sandy: The Show Is Back On

Credit John Lamparski / Getty Images

Superstorm Sandy starting hitting New York on Monday. By Wednesday, life had returned to the Time Square theater district.

By Jeff Lunden

Originally published on Thu November 1, 2012 5:42 pm

Listen

One of New York's biggest economic engines reopened on Wednesday after being dark in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. Broadway brings in more than $1 billion in annual ticket sales and billions more in revenue from hotels, restaurants and other businesses in the Times Square area. But getting Broadway running, with much of the transportation system down, required some extreme measures.

4:44 am

Sun October 28, 2012

Star-Studded 'Heiress' Considers A Woman's Worth

Next image Previous image

Jessica Chastain makes her Broadway debut as Catherine Sloper in The Heiress. Chastain says she was moved by the arc of her character's story — initially defined by the men in her life, but ultimately finding strength in herself.

A revival of The Heiress, a 1947 play based on the Henry James novella Washington Square, opens at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York on Nov. 1. It stars (from left) Judith Ivey, Dan Stevens, David Strathairn and Jessica Chastain.

Dan Stevens — Matthew Crawley on the hit TV show Downton Abbey — plays Morris Townsend, Sloper's passionate but penniless suitor.

By Jeff Lunden

Originally published on Sun October 28, 2012 9:58 am

Listen

A much-anticipated revival of The Heiress, a 1947 play based on the Henry James novella Washington Square, opens in New York on Thursday. It marks the Broadway debut of two accomplished young stars — Jessica Chastain, the Academy Award nominee from The Help, and Dan Stevens, from the hit television series Downton Abbey.

1:03 am

Thu October 18, 2012

Philadelphia Orchestra Reboots With New Music Director

Credit Ryan Donnell

Yannick Nezet-Seguin leads the Philadelphia Orchestra.

By Jeff Lunden

Originally published on Thu October 18, 2012 11:11 am

Listen

Everywhere you look right now, it seems like American symphony orchestras are fighting for their lives — strikes, lockouts, bankruptcy. Perhaps the biggest example is the world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra, which is just coming out of its own bankruptcy. Tonight, its new 37-year-old music director takes the podium as the venerable orchestra begins a reboot.

3:06 pm

Wed October 10, 2012

During Lockout Season, Orchestra Musicians Grapple With Their Future

Credit Greg Helgeson

The Minnesota Orchestra is one of many orchestras around the country dealing with labor disputes.

By Jeff Lunden

Originally published on Thu October 11, 2012 12:05 pm

Listen

It's been a tumultuous time for American orchestras. Labor disputes have shut down the Minnesota Orchestra and Indianapolis Symphony, and strikes and lockouts have affected orchestras in Chicago, Atlanta and Louisville in the past year.

2:33 pm

Tue September 18, 2012

Shorts Inspire Music In 'Sounding Beckett' Trilogy

Next image Previous image

Credit Jeremy Tressler / Sounding Beckett

In Ohio Impromptu, one of three short plays featured in Sounding Beckett, the silent character (Philip Goodwin, left, with Ted van Griethuysen) inspired music based on knocks and repetitions.

Credit Jeremy Tressler / Sounding Beckett

Guitar plinks represent May (Holly Twyford) pacing the floor in the music based on Beckett's Footfalls.

By Jeff Lunden

Originally published on Tue September 18, 2012 6:09 pm

Listen

It all began last year, when the Library of Congress presented Samuel Beckett's Ohio Impromptu alongside a piece of music by composer Dina Koston, which responded to the text. A New York group, the Cygnus Ensemble, played the music, while Washington, D.C., director Joy Zinoman staged the play, for one night only.

Jeff Lunden		RSS
All Content	closeNews podcasts Use iTunes Use a different player	RSS
View all podcasts & RSS feeds

Now Playing

Podcasts & RSS Feeds

Jeff Lunden

Pages

Performing Arts

4:35 pm

Thu November 1, 2012