Today The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia is officially released by Rowman & Littlefield. I’ve been busy with interviews about my book by podcasters, bloggers, columnists, and radio producers, and links to the results of our conversations can found via the COVERAGE menu at www.RickPenderWrites.com.
I want to make special mention of two multi-part interviews that will soon be available. First is Bill Rudman’s On the Aisle program on SiriusXM’s On Broadway channel, presented on Saturdays at 3pm and Tuesdays at 9pm. I sat down to talk about Sondheim and the Encyclopedia with Bill for several hours a few weeks back, and he’s transformed our conversation into four hour-long programs featuring lots of musical interludes that demonstrate some of our topics. Program one is set to air on April 17 and 20; No. 2 is set for April 24 and 27; No. 3 for May 22 and 25; and No. 4, for May 29 and June 1. that will air on the satellite channel. After they air on SiriusXM, Bill’s programs take on a second life as Footlight Parade, distributed to numerous public and non-commercial radio stations (to identify a station in your area, go to www.musicaltheaterproject.org/footlight-parade.html). Once they’re available you can also stream episodes via the Public Radio Exchange at https://exchange.prx.org/series/38215-footlight-parade-sounds-of-the-american-musical
Another wonderful offering is The Sondheim Project, a YouTube program (https://tinyurl.com/2cts3jee) hosted by Madeline Botteri and Joel DeCandio. They have repackaged our lovely extended conversation into nine episodes that will begin to release on Sunday, April 18. Here are the topics: Ep. 1 Introducing Rick Pender; Ep. 2 The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia; Ep. 3 Interviewing Sondheim; Ep. 4 A Playwright in Song; Ep. 5 Art & The Artist; Ep. 6 Content Dictates Form; Ep. 7 Reinterpreting Sondheim for a New Generation; Ep. 8 On Adam Kirsch’s Wall Street Journal Essay: “Why Sondheim is America’s Greatest Living Writer”; and Ep. 9 Human Connection.
All this attention for a book about Stephen Sondheim is very exciting. If you haven’t signed up for our 90-minute live-streaming launch event on Friday evening, April 16, at 7pm ET, please do so. I’ll be chatting with David Armstrong of the Broadway Nation podcast, and we’ll take questions from those in attendance and have some Sondheim trivia to test the depth of your own knowledge of the great composer and lyricist. Register via https://tinyurl.com/Penderevent to receive a link to the free event.