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[0:00] Robert W. Schneider: Will everyone here kindly step to the rear and let a winner lead the way? They say that love is better the second time around, but you know what is even better the second time around? Broadway Bound, The Musicals That Never Came to Broadway, Season 2, Miss Hannigan's Revenge. My name is Robert W. Schneider and I'm a musical theater historian and director who has had the great fortune of unearthing tons of musicals in my award-winning series at 54 Below called, creatively enough, Broadway Bound. What I love doing about this series, which you can check out on my channel on YouTube, is that a lot of people come to the concert thinking, ugh, I'm gonna have to sit through an evening of bad songs from bad shows, and they leave believers, converts.

The problem with doing this series is I only have a few minutes to discuss each show and the story on how these shows came to be, and even more importantly, why they never came to Broadway. These stories are absolutely fascinating. Broadway Bound is dedicated to all those musicals that were supposed to come to Broadway, but for one reason or another did not, and each episode is an in-depth exploration of a musical that, like most musicals, had its eyes set on the great bright way but shuddered along the way. Each episode features interviews with the people who were there on the front lines, including some audience members, demo recordings from these shows, audio from live performances, and seeing if there is a world in which any of these shows still might make it to Times Square.

And because we love a theme, each season is unified by a common idea. If you remember, season one was Hooray for Hollywood, the Broadway Bound musicals that were based on movies, and this season is called, drumroll please, you're only as good as your last, Broadway Bound musicals from major songwriters. Ten musicals all written by giants of the theater who were unable to recreate the magic that had once made them titans of the industry. We will walk down the Theater Hall of Fame to see the men who brought you Cabaret in Chicago as they try to make woolly mammoths sing, while that musical theater maven Arthur Miller tries to make Adam and Eve belt their hearts out in our nation's capital. Down the hall, we have two of Broadway's most beloved lyricists struggling to find comedy in the Alaskan gold rush, while Saint Steven Sondheim is struggling to find gold in the Yukon with the Meisner Brothers.

Yes, Steven Sondheim, John Kander, Fred Ebb, Alan Jay Lerner, Tom Jones, Harvey Schmidt, Cy Coleman, Arthur Miller, plus a few more, will all be part of Season 2 of Broadway Bound. So let's get into our time machines, buckle up, and watch how our favorite writers navigated the oh-so-tricky waters of Philly, Boston, and Baltimore. Season 2, Broadway Bound, March 18th, 2025. Your seat was in the balcony, but due to ticket sales of these shows, we're moving you up to the front row.