
Theater History and Mysteries
I take a musical theater production and do a deep dive to find a richer understanding about the lessons the show has for theater and life. And, I’ll never miss an opportunity to pursue any mystery, bizarre coincidence, improbable event, or supernatural suggestion along the way because, in the words of Dirk Gentley, it is all connected.
You can contact me directly at theaterhistorypodcast@gmail.com
Released every other Tuesday.
Music by Jon Bruschke and Andrew Howat, arranged, performed, and recorded by Andrew Howat.
Podcasting since 2024 • 22 episodes
Theater History and Mysteries
Latest Episodes
Cats -- Feline Failures (productions that tanked), Episode 22 (Cats 8 of 8).
I am writing this on Father’s Day, 2025, and to mark this occasion I will share my greatest parenting victory. Last spring, during Taylor Swift’s eras Tour my daughter did all the things one does to try to get a ticket. Tried the pr...
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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36:07

Cats -- Is Grizabella a prostitute? Episode 21 (Cats 7 of 8).
An already famous poet is working, for the first time, on something light and fun. It’s a children’s book of poems about Cats. All his previous work has basically been about the anxious terror in the modern world, but he is going to...
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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35:11

Cats -- A Cats ghost story. Episode 20 (Cats 6 of 8)
You’ve heard this one before. Maybe it’s a beautiful Siren, singing a gorgeous song only to lure unsuspecting sailors on to the rocks and eventually their death. Or a snake, promising you a delicious apple, only to curse all of huma...
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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48:43

Cats -- TS Eliot and the Occult...it's actual history. Episode 19 (Cats 5 of 8)
A young TS Eliot is at Harvard where the field of psychology is just now emerging. You can read Freud, of course, but there’s nothing like behavioral or analytic psychology that have yet to be developed. But there are dreams – and w...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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33:44

Cats -- Sex and spectacle; what makes the musical work! Episode 18 (Cats 4 of 8)
Episode #4The year is 1982. The liberatory vibe of the 1960s is long gone…Ronald Reagan is president, and it’s a bad time to be an air traffic controller, or a union member, or an Iranian hostage, or, maybe most tragically, ...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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34:08
