A theatre podcast hosted by critics Peter Marks (Washington Post) and Elisabeth Vincentelli (contributor to the New York Times). Featuring guest interviews, show discussion and more.
marksvincentelli.substack.com (https://marksvincentelli.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)
Everything You STILL Wanted to Know about “Les Miz”* (*And We’re Here to Tell You!)
“Les Miserables” may be a war horse, but dang, that old thoroughbred is spry. The musical by Claude Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretchmer opened in London in 1985 (after being birthed in Paris) and two years later, on Broadway. As new productions are springing up across the country, we turned to Powell, who has staged “Les Mizzes” all over the world, to talk about his history with the show and about its bottomless appeal.
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8 Sept 2026
The naked truth? “Garry Starr Classic Penguins” is a stripped-down hoot. Let clown king Damien Warren-Smith explain.
I saw Damien Warren-Smith perform his 80-minute hit show last month at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe — a show that epitomizes the spirit of fringe. Here, we talk about the clown tradition that the British born, Australian-bred Warren-Smith champions, in a show he built around the titles of Penguin Classic books. It’s a conceit that you really have to hear more about to fully appreciate. And Warren-Smith unravels it all here.
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27 Jul 2026
"Birthright" is the summer's hottest play. Also the most controversial.
Is there a provocative button that our guest Jonathan Spector doesn’t like to push? Mind you, this makes him sound like David Mamet or something, which is very much not his style.
Jonathan’s play “Eureka Day,” which won the Tony Award for best revival last year, was about the debate around vaccines at a Bay Area school in the middle of a mumps outbreak.
Now he’s back with “Birthright,” at MCC Theater (https://mcctheater.org/tix/birthright/) through Aug. 23, about six people who met on a birthright trip to Israel (some knew each other before, but the trip was the binding agent for them as a group). The play follows these three women and three men over the course of 18 years, through relationships and jobs, domestic politics and international conflicts — the action ends in 2024 so you can probably guess what figures in the show’s explosive third act.
“Birthright” is very much a play of ideas and there’s something highly satisfying about watching a writer stretch them over a big canvas — Teddy Bergman’s production is three hours and 20 minutes.
We asked Jonathan about the genesis of “Birthright,” tackling a very fraught subject, writing for an ensemble and a lot more.
To wraps things up, Elisabeth brought up the Adult Film company’s “Woyzeck,” (https://www.adultfilm.nyc/) which she’d recently seen in Queens (it’s included in this roundup of reviews of Off Off Broadway show (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/theater/heated-rivalry-dukes-jane-wickline-othello-theater-picks.html)s).
Thanks to Christian Huygen for our theme music.
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Who has been a guest on Marks & Vincentelli: A Theatre Podcast
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Zayd Ayers Dohrn
Tom Morello
Andrew Fox
Ari'el Stachel
Tom Kirdahy
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.2 / 5
6 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 12 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
11
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
32
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Guest appearances
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