The Muny's 2020 season has been and continues to be, unlike any before.
After the outdoor theater—a staple of summer entertainment in St. Louis—closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the cast and crew moved online to stream performances.
"When we first announced we were going to have to postpone our onstage season, which was, as you can imagine, heartbreaking after 102 years of people gathering in Forest Park, our creative team came together and said, 'Hey, we've got to do something. There has to be something we can do,'" public relations manager Dylan Stanley says. "Even if it's through our screens, we couldn't just walk away."
They began with "Muny Magic in Your Home," a series of exclusive footage from the concert series "Muny Magic at the Sheldon." Once that ended on July 13, the theater moved onto "The Muny 2020 Summer Variety Hour Live!," a talent show featuring footage from past shows and brand-new performances by Muny stars.
The second episode of the variety show will happen at 8:15 p.m. Monday on the Muny's YouTube channel. It will air again at the same time on Thursday, July 30, with captions and audio descriptions. Once it streams the second time, it will no longer be available—just like in live theater.
The first episode drew more than 30,000 viewers from across the country and even the world – the most of any livestream the Muny has done. The theater itself has 10,800 seats, according to its website, meaning the premiere attendance was equivalent to nearly three nights of sold-out shows.
"We're extremely hopeful that that number continues to grow," Stanley says. "We were overwhelmed. We were completely humbled. Fingers crossed that that number keeps growing. The more the merrier."
One advantage to doing an online broadcast is that it's available to people from anywhere. Stanley says he's heard from people who would usually travel to St. Louis just to see a performance at the theater; others may have never even visited the venue.
"For a lot of people, this is probably their first taste of the Muny," he says. "I hope we're doing them proud."
Monday's show will feature footage from the Muny's productions of Aida, 42nd Street, Spamalot, and Oklahoma! as well as seven new performances by Muny veterans, behind-the-scenes stories about how the Muny does fireworks, a Muny-themed gameshow "Munywood Squares," and more.
The new, live acts include:
- Married couple Maggie Lakis and Rob McClure—who played Seymour in the Muny's "Little Shop of Horrors"—performing "Suddenly Seymour" from the same show
- Taylor Louderman singing "Astonishing" from Little Women live from the Muny
- A reunion of cast members from the Muny's 2017 show The Little Mermaid, singing "Under the Sea" for the kids in the audience
- A recording of Chloe O. Davis performing her original work at the Muny, "My Tribute to Black Broadway and Black Choreographers: I Thrive Now Because You Dared Then," which includes tributes to choreographic icons Katherine Dunham, George Faison, Debbie Allen, Hope Clarke, Gregory Hines, Donald Byrd, Bill T. Jones, and Camille A. Brown
- Past Muny performers Maya Bowles, Trevor Michael Schmidt, and Gabi Stapula performing a modern version they wrote of "There's Gotta be Something Better Than This" from Sweet Charity
- Muny Teens singing a mashup of "Bring on the Monsters" from The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical and "Drive It Like You Stole It" from Sing Street
- Nkeki Obi-Melekwe performing "If You Knew My Story" from Bright Star
The fact that the theater will be able to air footage from its vault is a big deal, Stanley says. Usually, licensing companies don't allow any recordings of full production numbers from the show to be released to the public, but they gave the Muny permission to show clips in lieu of live performances.
"There's a lot of red tape and intricate parts that really have to align and [the licensing houses] said, 'Go for it,'" he says.
He hopes these shows will be able to bring back some of the tradition people may have lost when the Muny closed.
"We're most excited to continue giving St. Louis their Muny summer," he says.
At a staff meeting after the first show, the staff was thrilled to feel they'd been able to do that with the outpouring of support from fans.
"We were all just kind of beside ourselves. So many people had written in to say, 'We're starting a tradition at home, where we get all our snacks together and get on the couch, or we watch it outside in the backyard on a projector,'" Stanley says. "They're all honoring their Muny summer, but now in a different way because we have to. That's just heartwarming."
There will be three more variety shows after this week. They will all premiere on Mondays and be available at the same time the following Thursday.
