The Selection Committee Radio Show with Peter Duchan, 1/22/23

From the very start, playwright and screenwriter Peter Duchan throws down a gauntlet: “In case you were feeling like this show was getting ‘too cool,’ I came here to change everything!” Barbra Streisand’s “Putting It Together,” from The Broadway Album, really sets the tone as Peter takes us on a driving tour of a lifetime in musical theater. We begin with childhood trips in the family minivan listening to his mother’s favorites (Streisand, various and sundry ’70s-era sex comedies, the Sleepless in Seattle soundtrack) but soon segue into his period of teenage rebellion, when his insistence on Michael John LaChiusa and Adam Guettel musicals resulted in a full revocation of tape-playing privileges in the car. As Peter grows up, his love and dedication to the musical as a form only deepens, in large part because of his attraction to music that is rooted in storytelling and drama. Charming, funny, AND educational!