The bassist, Broadway music coordinator, and actor John Miller discusses the 10th anniversary re-release of his acclaimed album Stage Door John: John Miller Takes on Broadway, music and his four season run on Mozart in the Jungle, with Joseph Planta.

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

We continue meeting some of the fascinating, talented people in New York now, as John Miller joins me. The singer, bassist, and Broadway music coordinator is releasing a special 10^th anniversary edition of his acclaimed album, Stage Door Johnny: John Miller—Takes on Broadway. The album features a dozen familiar, legendary Broadway songs done in fun, engaging, and irreverent interpretations that are purely John Miller. From “Hey There,” from the Pajama Game, to “Ol’ Man River” from Show Boat, one of my favourites “Real Life Girl” from Little Me, to “Hernando’s Hideaway” from the Pajama Game, they are just fun, folksy, danceable numbers. As Paul Shaffer said of the album, “Johnny takes a boogaloo down Broadway in this impressive re-imagining of the classics.” The numbers sound fresh, and certainly after ten years, they’re timely and show the listener how versatile and enduring the music of Broadway is. John Miller has served a Music Coordinator of over 130 Broadway productions over the last four decades, currently represented on Broadway by Tony Award winners Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations, and the acclaimed production of Oklahoma! Upcoming is Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. Among other shows include The Producers, Once, Jersey Boys, Hairspray, and Barnum, the music of which was by Cy Coleman. Mr. Miller made his Broadway debut as an actor in another Cy Coleman production, I Love My Wife. I’ll ask him about a song in that production, “Hey There, Good Times,” which he performed, which is a personal favourite of mine. As a bassist, he has played for everyone from Madonna, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, the New York Philharmonic, and Tony Bennett, among many others. And for four seasons, Mr. Miller played Dee Dee on the Amazon Prime series Mozart in the Jungle. This re-release is available Friday, 21 June 2019 wherever you get music. And visit www.johnmillerbass.com where you can order CD’s. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, John Miller; Mr. Miller, good morning.

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