Ep. 25: Women Writing Musicals & How Broadway Shows Actually Get Made with Acclaimed Producer, Author, & Historian Jennifer Ashley Tepper

This week, Alex sits down with one of the most impressive creative multi-hyphenates in New York City, Jennifer Ashley Tepper, to discuss her new book Women Writing Musicals: The Legacy That The History Books Left Out, the first-ever book about female musical theatre writers. Jennifer shares how she juggles her writing and producing with her demanding schedule as the Creative and Programming Director of 54 Below, how she’s carved a completely unique career path for herself, and her best advice for anyone pursuing a creative life. Plus, Jen takes us behind-the-scenes of the Joe Iconis musical “Be More Chill” and its non-traditional journey to Broadway, as well as the years of diligent preservation work that went into “The Jonathan Larson Project” and what exactly she predicts for Broadway’s future.

You can buy Jennifer’s new book Women Writing Musicals: The Legacy That The History Books Left Out on November 19th!

Jennifer Ashley Tepper is a theatre historian, author, and producer who has curated or produced over 7,000 shows over the past decade as the Creative and Programming Director at 54 Below. Her leadership at the beloved venue has gained praise from publications including The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Buzzfeed, Playbill, Newsday, The New York Post, and more. Tepper's four volumes of The Untold Stories of Broadway book series have been called an "inspiring must-read" by NBC New York and occupied the #1 spot on Amazon's Best Sellers List in Broadway & Musicals. Tepper is the producer of the musicals Be More Chill, Broadway Bounty Hunter, and Love In Hate Nation, recent projects that are part of a decade-long collaboration with the group known as Joe Iconis & Family. On Broadway, Tepper has also worked on [title of show], The Performers, Godspell, Macbeth, and The Parisian Woman. She is the conceiver and director of The Jonathan Larson Project, historian consultant on the tick, tick... BOOM! movie (directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda for Netflix), and the co-creator of the Bistro Award-winning concert series, If It Only Even Runs A Minute. Her work as a theatre historian also encompasses celebrated live talks and events, including at TEDx Broadway, BroadwayCon, The Museum of Broadway, Thespian Festivals, and more. Tepper received a 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, and she was named one of the 10 professionals on Backstage Magazine's "1st Annual Broadway Future Power List", which stated: "Proving herself both a zeitgeist predictor and theatrical historian with her eclectic programming, Tepper is leading the conversation on contemporary musical theatre.”

Connect With Jennifer Ashley Tepper: @jenashtep

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