This Friday: Download Video of Our Biggest Live Show Ever!

By Ira Glass
June 16, 2014

UPDATE: THE VIDEO IS AVAILABLE NOW!

Ira writes:

Hi everyone! Last week we tried one of the most ambitious things we’ve ever attempted: a show onstage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House with nearly 70 actors, singers, dancers and musicians, including some actual famous people, turning the kinds of stories we do every week into all sorts of incredibly fun performances onstage. And this Friday, you can see the video!

I’ve always wanted us to do one of our stories as a musical and it was thrilling to see that finally happen. Lin-Manuel Miranda (who wrote the Broadway musical In the Heights) turned a piece of journalism — a story you may remember from our show, about a high school kid who asks an undercover cop to the prom — into a full-on musical, with dancing and singing and everything, performed by an all-Broadway cast. It’s amazing, and just hearing it on the radio, you'll miss the choreography which is non-stop for the entire thing, and the sets and costumes. Comedians Sasheer Zamata of SNL and Mike Birbiglia each did stories that brought down the house. Stephin Merritt from The Magnetic Fields plays songs. There were surprise cameos and so much more in this show but honestly I’d rather say less to avoid spoilers.

It’s really one of the best things we’ve ever done.

And here’s the big news that’s the reason for this blogpost: This weekend, in addition to putting an hour-long version on the radio, we’re trying this thing where you’ll be able to SEE the show as well. We’re doing it Louis CK-style: for just five bucks, you can download or stream video of the entire show. It includes over forty minutes of material we couldn’t fit on the radio.

I hope you watch. If this works, and enough people download, it’ll become something we can do again. Also: we’re all super-proud of it. It’s like any of the best episodes of our show, plus music and singing and acting and costumes and sets and dancing!

All this week, we’ll post little previews to give you a sense of what it’ll be.