Theater

The Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical is about a Black gay man working as an usher on Broadway. Michael R. Jackson talks about writing the book, music and lyrics and how his time working as an usher at The Lion King on Broadway inspired it.

Washington was recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He spoke to Fresh Air in 2008, about the film The Great Debaters, which he directed and starred in.

Hall, who died June 12, appeared in the Paul Thomas Anderson films Boogie Nights and Magnolia. He also played a cop on the trail of overdue library books on Seinfeld. Originally broadcast in 2003.

In June, Lansbury will receive the Tony Award for lifetime achievement. The Murder, She Wrote star previously won Tonys for her performances in Gypsy and Sweeney Todd. Originally broadcast in 2000.

PBS's documentary details how Sondheim's landmark 1970 musical was adapted to the current Broadway version — pivoting on a gender switch that rewrites the central role as a woman instead of a man.

Waterston joined the cast of the original NBC series in 1994 on a one-year contract. He wound up staying 16 years, until the series wrapped in 2010. Now the show's back — and so is he. We talk about working into his 80s, Grace and Frankie, and how the 1984 film The Killing Fields changed his life and career.

Hurt, who died March 13, won an Oscar for his performance as a drag queen sharing a prison cell with a political dissident in the 1985 film Kiss of the Spider Woman. Originally broadcast in 2010.

Baranski started her career in theater and now co-stars in The Gilded Age on HBO. "I was a passionate acting student and nothing was going to stop me," she says. Originally broadcast June 25, 2020.

Cox says ruthless business tycoon Logan Roy is one of the most extraordinary roles he's ever played: "He is a misanthrope [who] is very disappointed with the human experiment." We talk with the Scottish actor about the musicality of his voice, why he doesn't practice method acting, and growing up in poverty.

We conclude our tribute to Sondheim by listening to archival interviews with collaborators and performers, including Stephen Colbert, James Lapine, Paul Gemignani and Lin-Manuel Miranda.