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.
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On Broadway and national tours, the performers who substitute for various chorus members at the drop of a hat are known as "swings." Wednesday is designated "National Swing Day" in their honor.
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Yarrow wrote or co-wrote some of the group's biggest 1960s hits, including "Puff, the Magic Dragon" and "Day Is Done." -
Gypsy has been called the best musical of all time. Audra McDonald is starring in a new Broadway revival, and the race-conscious casting gives the production a new frame. -
Lionel trains turns 125, celebrating more than a century of holiday magic. From historic models to smartphone-controlled locomotives, these iconic toy trains continue to captivate kids and collectors alike. -
Lloyd's Carrot Cake has been a New York institution for nearly 40 years. Every Thanksgiving customers from near and far flock to the shop to purchase the moist cakes, topped with cream cheese icing.
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Riders who participate in InTandem Cycling in New York find out it's more than just riding a bike and more than just exercise. It's socialization, good for your mental health and its teamwork.
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Wynton Marsalis, Bryan Stevenson and a host of musicians release a record that captures the rhythm of life -
Stereophonic, which had 13 nominations, won five awards, including best play. The Outsiders and Merrily We Roll Along picked up four awards each. Hell's Kitchen, nominated for 13 awards, won two.
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They sit behind a console that looks like the bridge of a spaceship and use complicated technology to bring words from the actors mouth to the audience's ears. -
Sherman and his brother Robert became Disney Studios' first ever in-house songwriters. They won two Oscars for their songs and score to Mary Poppins and composed the classic "It's a Small World."
