NBC News Stars Bring Live Radio Romp Back for Off-Broadway, "Today" and Audible Audiences

Today coanchors Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie took the stage at Audible Theater39s home base the Minetta Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village in the lead roles of knowitall Inspector Cameo Klopf and her Brooklynborn sidekick Minerva Hammersmith respectively Providing able support as the wacky bunch of quotstock charactersquot populating Corwin39s satirical sendup of radio quotwhodunitsquot were a host of their colleagues from the quotTodayquot and NBC News family Craig Melvin as bumbling Dr Lionel Bumbridge Al Roker as obnoxious entertainer Elwyn Repell Jenna Bush Hager as nervous Gladys Pinkney Kerry Sanders as weepy studio maintenance man Lem Slope Tom Llamas as Police Lt O39Hanrahan Sheinelle Jones as fortuneteller Astrid Breeze 11th Hour host Stephanie Ruhle as the perpetually soused writer Felice Fothergill Peter Alexander as Prof Worthington Thrummock Harry Smith as tightfisted corporate sponsor Humphrey J Plimsol and Dateline correspondent Keith Morrison as the Narrator ensconced in an easy chair Foley artist Leer Leary contributed the sound effects assisted by Dylan Dreyer and jazz pianist DD Jackson provided the musicDecked out in period costumes matching the personalities of their colorful characters this astute assemblage stepped up to their vintage mics on a Minetta Lane stage dripping with 1940s ambiance and dug into their respective roles with gusto apparently enjoying themselves immensely as did their enthusiastic audienceAnd why not Although most of these prominent television journalists were making their OffBroadway debuts and had never done a live quotradio playquot before all of them are seasoned pros who are awfully good at their respective day jobs and no strangers to showbiz So under the direction of Today39s Special Projects Producer Robin Sindler and with guidance from dialect coach Jordan Yanco they really sank their teeth into the task at hand and did not disappointIt also did not hurt that their material was not a timeworn example of a typical radio mystery script of the 1940s but rather a carefully crafted lampoon of the detective genre by a man whom many critics and media historians consider quotthe poet laureate of radioquotAlthough his name is much less recognized today Norman Corwin was one of the most famous writers in America when quotMurder in Studio Onequot first aired on October 12 1941 with actress playwright Ruth Gordon starring as Cameo Klopf and the popular radio comedienne Minerva Pious as her sidekick It was the 23rd broadcast of TwentySix by Corwin a CBS series of 26 original radio plays written produced and directed by Corwin featuring the country39s top acting talent all broadcast live to an audience of millions with a new show every week for a full halfyear Think about that for a minuteCorwin who died in 2011 at the age of 101 enjoyed an incredibly long career as a radio dramatist producer director screenwriter essayist and educator His remarkable radio work during World War II including We Hold These Truths a celebration of the Bill of Rights that aired a week after Pearl Harbor On a Note of Triumph commemorating VE Day and Fourteen August marking the end of the war ranks among the most acclaimed and listenedto radio programs ever broadcastGarnering two Peabody Awards an Emmy a Golden Globe an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay of Lust for Life in 1956 and a slew of other honors Corwin published about 20 books kept writing throughout his life and continued teaching journalism at USC until the age of 97Yet perhaps Corwin39s greatest legacy is the generations of writers and artists who credited his work as a major inspiration for their own from science fiction writer Ray Bradbury who called him quotthe greatest director writer and producer in the history of radioquot to TV creators Rod Serling Norman Lear and Gene Roddenberry filmmaker Robert Altman novelist Phillip Roth comedian Robin Williams and many moreAnd he was pretty inspirational to me too As a media and theatre student developing a passion for radio drama in the 1970s when hardly anyone was still doing it it dawned on me that much of the radio programming of the past that I most admired was Corwin39s work Over the years I had the privilege to direct a few of his radio plays for the air as well as live onstage theatrical recreations of several moreOnce in the early 2000s after discovering that we had mutual friends among some of my theatre acquaintances in Connecticut I got up the courage to shoot off an email to Mr Corwin To my shock he eventually replied with a phone call amp8211 and for a few minutes I had a chance to chat or more accurately stammer nervously with my idolI hope you39ll find Corwin39s work inspiring too as the combined forces of NBC News Today and its cast and Audible Theater bring his quotMurder in Studio Onequot back to hilarious lifeCorwin39s 1941 original was adapted for the occasion with permission from the Norman Administrative Trust Proceeds from the live performance are being donated to Boys and Girls Clubs of AmericaClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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NBC News Stars Bring Live Radio Romp Back for Off-Broadway, "Today" and Audible Audiences

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Richard Mancini

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