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[0:00] Jeffrey Scott Parsons: Hey everybody, this is Jeffrey Scott Parsons. I have just realized that I don't like the sound of my own voice, which is hilarious because I've started a podcast. Here's the deal. When we are younger, let's say eight to ten years old, we find filters through which we relate and understand the world. They're usually artistic in nature. Sometimes we find books, music, a lot of people find movies. For me, I found musical theatre. Musical theatre was my little Instagram filter through which I began to relate to the world. That meant that the reason I knew about FDR and the New Deal in school was because of Annie and the reason I could name all twelve tribes of Israel at church was because of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

If I'm being totally honest, a few years later as I got older, the way that I was able to process the death of my close family members was by watching Ragtime. That's why I wanted to create a podcast, was to have conversations about musical theatre that felt more profound than the razzmatazz that we usually use to get people to buy tickets. Let's be honest, I don't care if you think that musical theatre is cool. Cool is overrated. I live in Los Angeles, so I know that cool is very overrated. I do know that musical theatre is important. Those are the conversations that I want to be having on this podcast. Here's how it's going to work. Every week, we're going to pick a show. For that show, I'm going to have a guest, and we're going to have a conversation about that show, about that musical.

So what are the musicals we're going to cover? These musicals can be hits, maybe they're not. There's no shortage of musicals. Let's say, okay, the first musical to win the Tony Award for Best Musical was in 1949, Kiss Me Kate, right? Now we're in 2019, so if we just did the Best Musical winners, and that's not even including the musicals that didn't win Best Musical, like Beauty and the Beast, or West Side Story, or Wicked, or what else? Funny Girl, Gypsy. I think what will be really fun is that every guest is going to bring something different, and everybody has different tastes in terms of what they like the shows to be. Some of these shows will be some of my favorite shows. Some of them will be favorites of the guests.

Some of them might be your favorites, and that might mean that I were covering a musical that I don't really care for. I'm looking at you, Mamma Mia. But it's one of the longest running shows in Broadway history, so who am I to say that people aren't connecting to it? So we'll look at it, and we'll at least come up with a hypothesis as to why people connect to this show, and why it's bringing them joy. So I want to hear from you. If you have an idea for a show that you would want us to cover, just email us at a musical podcast at gmail dot com, or you can always contact us on Twitter at sign at a musical podcast. I'm excited to hear your thoughts. Tell me what show you wanted us to cover, and then you have to give me a good reason.

It can't just be, oh, maybe it can just be I did this show in my community theater, and I want to hear what you guys have to say about it. If that's it, just be honest. I want to hear your reasonings why. Be sure to like, comment, subscribe to the podcast whenever you can, and share it with your friends, because at the end of the day, you're another day older. No, at the end of the day, I want this to be a community where people can come and celebrate this art form in a way that maybe doesn't get explored as much. So please call me Jeff and bring along your show albums because we're about to get turned up. No, that's terrible. So please call me Jeff and get ready because a musical theater podcast is starting now.