Looking for scripted podcasts? We've put together a list of 16 audio dramas with ties to Broadway and the theatre community. Either created by playwrights and musical theatre writers, and/or starring your favorite Tony winners and stage alums, you'll want to add these shows to your listening queue.
The Parsnip Ship
Now in its fifth season, the play podcast The Parsnip Ship has been showcasing bold new audio plays by some of our most exciting emerging and established playwrights since 2016. Featuring original music and recorded live with an audience in Brooklyn, each episode re-imagines the concept of the radio play with stories that explode notions of form and content, with a focus on diverse perspectives. Following each play, Iyvon Edebiri, The Parsnip Ship's artistic director and host Iyvon Edebiri interviews the playwrights. You can listen on Spotify, iTunes, and other podcast platforms.
Playwrights Horizons’ Soundstage
Featuring new audio works by some of today’s most exciting playwrights, the series features work as eclectic in form as it is in content. Go on a journey with Heather Christian’s PRIME, a 10-song cycle inspired by monks’ breviary masses about waking and facing the morning; or turn your home into a stage with Jordan Harrison’s Play for Any Two People. The piece, directed by Morgan Green, is designed to create live theatre for a pair of listeners. Each listener puts on a separate pair of headphones and is fed two streams of audio while they act out their part: “the voice of your dialogue,” and “the voice in your head.” Other playwrights commissioned to take part in the project include Kate Tarker, Qui Nguyen, Robert O’Hara, Milo Cramer, Kirsten Childs, and Jeremy O. Harris. Available on iTunes, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.
John Cameron Mitchell’s Anthem: Homunculus
Launched in 2019 on Luminary, Hedwig creator John Cameron Mitchell’s music-driven Anthem: Homunculus features a host of familiar stage alums, including Tony Award winners Glenn Close, Cynthia Erivo, Patti LuPone, Denis O’Hare, and James Monroe Iglehart. In Homunculus, Mitchell plays the broke, solitary, and bitterly funny Ceann Mackay, who launches the world’s first online radio “tumor telethon” to raise money to remove his brain tumor. Songs are co-written with Bryan Weller; listen to a teaser from the show here. Anthem is available on Luminary and the original soundtrack is available for streaming on Spotify.
Gimlet’s The Two Princes
Now in its second season, Gimlet’s queer-themed The Two Princes stars Ari’el Stachel and Noah Galvin as Princes Amir and Rupert, who encounter each other—and subsequently navigate awakened, complex feelings for one another—as they embark on a quest to save their kingdoms. Tony Award winner Christine Baranski and Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo play their mothers, alongside a cast that also includes Laura Benanti, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Richard Kind, and a host of other stage alums. The Two Princes is penned by Kevin Christopher Snipes and directed by Mimi O’Donnell, Gimlet’s executive producer of scripted content and the former artistic director of LAByrinth Theater Company. Available on Spotify and other podcast platforms.
Playing On Air’s “Theatre for Your Pocket”
Since 2012, Playing on Air’s podcasts and public radio programs have shared the highest caliber contemporary short plays with audiences nationwide. The spring season features new audio works by Dominique Morisseau, Doug Wright, Ngozi Anyanwu and Rajiv Joseph, among others, with a slate of performers that includes John Lithgow, Michael C. Hall, Marisa Tomei, Julie White, Tony Shalhoub, and many others. Each play is followed by an insightful conversation with the artists. Available on the website, iTunes, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.
Gimlet’s The Horror of Dolores Roach
An early Gimlet original, The Horror of Dolores Roach stars Tony nominee Daphne Rubin-Vega as an ex-prisoner recounting a gruesome Sweeney Todd-inspired tale. After
returning to New York City after 16 years incarcerated, it’s not long before Dolores and her old friend Luis (played by Bobby Cannavale) become entangled in a cannibalistic scheme beneath an empanada shop. Listen out for performances by Michael Urie, Vanessa Williams, and Lillias White, among other stage favorites. The audio drama, which is being turned into a TV series, is adapted and directed by Aaron Mark from his acclaimed monologue play Empanada Loca. Listen to an excerpt here. Available on Spotify and other podcast platforms.
Broadway Podcast Network’s Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is re-imagined in a radio play format—reminiscent of the vintage broadcasts of the 1940’s—in this new series from the Broadway Podcast Network and Tony-winning producer Liz Armstrong. Described as "a dash of Mel Brooks and a pinch of Monty Python," Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors stars Christopher Sieber in the title role, alongside an all-star cast recording from their quarantine homes—including Annaleigh Ashford, Laura Benanti, Alex Brightman, James Monroe Iglehart, Rob McClure, Ashley Park, and many others. The podcast is written by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen, and directed by Greenberg. Proceeds benefit The Actors Fund and Broadway Cares Equity Fights Aids. Available on the Broadway Podcast Network, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.
Gimlet’s Motherhacker
Follow Bridget, played by Carrie Coon, on the ride of her life as she begins phishing over the phone in a desperate attempt to support her family (trained by the mysterious leader of an identity theft ring, played by Tony winner Katrina Lenk). The cast also includes Pedro Pascal, Alan Cumming, Lucas Hedges, and Tavi Gevinson, among others. Motherhacker is written by playwright Sandi Farkas, and directed and executive produced by Broadway producer Amanda Lipitz. Available on Spotify and other podcast platforms.
36 Questions
In 2017 musical theatre writers Christopher Littler and Ellen Winter cold-emailed Jonathan Groff asking him to be a part of their new podcast musical. It was a long shot that payed off; Groff, having fallen in love with the songs, stars alongside Jessie Shelton as a young married couple whose marriage is on the rocks. The two use the infamous “36 Questions” in the three-act podcast to try and right their relationship. 36 Questions is written, composed and directed by Christopher Littler and Ellen Winter, and produced by Two-Up Productions. The musical show is available on iTunes, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.
READ: How Two Unknown Composers Got Jonathan Groff to Star in Their Podcast Musical
Take a Ten
Launched by Jonathan Larson recipient Andy Roninson in 2013, Take a Ten features original 10-minute musicals created specifically for audio. Written in a range of styles, the series (which continued monthly through 2015) features performances by Laura Osnes, Rob Mclure, and George Salazar among others. Available on iTunes, and you can learn more here.
Oh, Hello: the P’dcast
Reunite with your least favorite Upper West Side bachelors as they set out on a podcast journey to tell the story of Princess Diana. Featuring excerpts from the recorded version of Oh Hello, on Broadway, the newly released episodes are sure to give you your quarantine fix of George St. Geegland and Gil Faizon. Nick Kroll and John Mulaney have asked listeners to donate to United Way of New York’s COVID-19 Community Fund, helping get food, Internet access, and school supplies to New Yorkers in need. Visit unitedway/ohhello to donate. Oh, Hello: the P’dcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.
Little Did I Know
Musical theatre fans won’t want to miss the musical podcast adaptation of Mitchell Maxwell’s book, Little Did I know. Following a group of recent college graduates who bring a broken-down summer theatre back to life in 1976, the cast of the musical audio drama features Olivier winner Lesli Margherita, Tony nominees Patrick Page and Richard Kind, Kurt Hugo Schneider, Laura Marano, Sam Tsui, Alex Blue, and Alexander Chaplin. Little Did I know features music by three-time Tony winner Doug Besterman, lyrics by Oscar and Grammy winner Dean Pitchford and Marcy Heisler, and a book by author Lou Aronica and Johanna Besterman. Check out Margherita performing “Somebody Like You,” from the show here. Available on the Broadway Podcast Network, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.
The Pack Podcast
Launched this week, The Pack Podcast is a new spoken word series featuring all-star casts performing short comedy plays by Emmy nominee and Drama Desk Award winner Eugene Pack. With three new plays dropping every Thursday, the lineup of performers includes Blair Underwood, Cecily Strong, Andrea Martin, and Michael Urie, among others. Available online here, proceeds from the podcast benefit The Actors Fund and Feeding America.
Bleeding Love
The premise for musical podcast Bleeding Love may sound a little familiar at this moment: set in a world that’s too dangerous to go outside, a starry-eyed teen cellist risks leaving her apartment to win the love of the rebel punk next door. Featuring a cast full of Broadway alums—including Annie Golden, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Marc Kudisch, Sarah Stiles, Taylor Trensch, and Tony Vincent—you can now binge all the episodes on the Broadway Podcast Network and other podcast platforms.
Closing the Distance
Created in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Closing the Distance explores the sudden distance between people as a result of the public health crisis with stories that look at social distancing, quarantine, and isolation. Co-written by authors Tawni O’Dell and Lou Aronica, and directed by Tony-winning producer and director Mitchell Maxwell, the 10 short audio dramas feature performances by Broadway alums Jason Alexander, Tony Danza, William Hurt, Kelli O'Hara, and Kathleen Turner. Now available on iTunes, Spotify and other podcast platforms.
Loveville High
Each 10-minute episode of the musical Loveville High takes you on a love story in the fictional town of Loveville, Ohio on prom night. Explore tales of new love, old love, romantic love, friend love, gay and straight, cis and genderqueer, with a cast that includes Ali Stroker, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Hailey Kilgore, Ryann Redmond, and many others. The show features music by Eric Svejcar, and book and lyrics by David Zellnik.
