🎭 My Favorite Sings — Ep. 8: "Early Morning Madness"
Rebranding and the Future of Musical Theater Development

In this episode of My Favorite Sings, hosts David Goldsmith and Paul Gordon announce a major shift for the show — revealing an upcoming rebrand to "Does It Sing?" with David Goldsmith & Friends, focusing on "The Three Questions" that drive every great musical: Does it Sing? Do I Care? and Does It Have A Reason For Being?

Paul shares his candid thoughts on the current state of Broadway, the obstacles facing new musicals, and the urgent need for musical and narrative sophistication. The conversation digs into West Side Story, Company, and A Chorus Line — dissecting what made them revolutionary — while reflecting on structure, storytelling, and why digital platforms may hold the key to theatre’s next chapter. BONUS: Stick around after the final credits, for an easter egg from the episode that reveals the clue of the title.

🎧 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@davidgoldsmithlyrics
🎙 Listen on Spotify, Apple & all platforms

⏱ Episode Timestamps:

00:00 — Introduction and Rebranding Pre-Announcement
01:21 — Technical Glitches and Podcasting Realities
02:05 — Paul’s Vacation and Catching Up
03:07 — Listener Engagement and Monetization
03:51 — The Connector Concert Experience
07:00 — Broadway’s Musical Landscape
09:41 — The Art of Storytelling in Musicals
13:43 — The Three Questions Framework
23:36 — Groundbreaking Musicals: West Side Story, Company, Chorus Line
26:59 — The Genius of Marvin Hamlisch
30:05 — Challenges in the Broadway Industry
34:09 — The Importance of Digital Transformation
36:16 — Paul Gordon’s Farewell and Future Plans
41:24 — Advice for Aspiring Musical Writers
47:06 — Final Thoughts and POST-CREDIT SURPRISE Anecdote

While Paul’s off gallivanting in LA, David welcomes his longtime songwriting partner John Kavanaugh as guest co-host. John (9-time Emmy nominee, Sofia the First, Elena of Avalor, Descendants 3) joins for a deep dive into the realities of songwriting for Disney, film, television, stage—and what separates a song from a track.

They cover:

✅ Landing their newest Disney song (and how blind submissions work)
✅ The strange mix of art, commerce, and luck behind every song placement
✅ The craft of structure, form, and musical theatre songwriting vs pop songwriting
✅ Their collaboration on My Once Upon A Time (Descendants 3)
✅ The long road of their musical Five Women at an Airport — now streaming on Virtual Stage Lab

🎧 PLUS: A never-before-heard surprise — the original demo track of "My Once Upon A Time"
Produced by Marco Marinangeli & performed by Ashley Morgan — the first recording Dove Cameron heard before laying down her version.

💻 More from this episode:

• 🎼 Five Women at an Airport → https://fivewomenatairportmusical.com
• 🎥 Virtual Stage Lab → https://virtualstagelab.com
• 🎶 Watch/listen to My Once Upon A Time → https://youtu.be/eS4po4pY3xs?si=AKSfgVJEkAFnhr5Y
• 🎙 Contact Virtual Stage Lab: virtualstagelab@gmail.com

My Favorite Sings is a production of Virtual Stage Lab.

CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS

00:00 — Pink headphones, Pride Month & LA flashbacks
04:40 — Guest intro: John Kavanaugh’s Emmy-winning resume
08:15 — Landing their newest Disney song
12:50 — Blind submissions & the Disney song process
17:20 — Structure: musical theatre vs pop songwriting
24:00 — The story behind My Once Upon A Time
35:00 — Why training matters for songwriters
42:10 — The evolution of Five Women at an Airport
52:30 — Virtual Stage Lab & democratizing musical development
1:02:00 — Shameless Plugs: Five Women at an Airport
1:07:30 — Tony Awards recap
1:13:00 — 🎧 BONUS: The original demo of "My Once Upon A Time"

🎙️ NEW EPISODE!
“What, Me? Shameless Plugs?” — Ep. 6 of My Favorite Sings is live!

David Goldsmith & Paul Gordon get real(ish) about:
✅ Launching the pod
✅ Taking notes (or not)
✅ Segment ideas they may never use
✅ And why filmed musicals might just save the industry

Also: some very shameless plugs. You’ve been warned.

🧢 Stream now wherever you get your podcasts
🎭 Watch on YouTube + Spotify

#MyFavoriteSings #MusicalTheatrePodcast #BroadwayWriters #VirtualStageLab #PaulGordon #DavidGoldsmith #NewMusicals #FilmedTheatre

Just in time for the Tony's, David Starts off this week’s episode by springing the podcast’s Main Title song and accompanying video onto Paul for the first time. He remains unpersuaded and the protest continues. It’s Tony Nominations Announcement week as this episode is being filed, so naturally a freewheeling, snark-free (mostly) discussion ensues, along with a rapturous acknowledgment of Tony™ nominee Jasmine Amy Rogers, making her Broadway debut as Betty Boop, but who is also making her Gordon & Goldsmith musical My Improbable Sisters, in a very different and no less luminous performance as little-known civil rights icon Claudette Colvin, now streaming for free on YouTube, and you must go there now and watch it before you come back and listen to this episode. This week’s nerdlist includes a dive into some of Sondheim’s Greatest Patters. David allows Paul more TV and Film music discussion than he’s really comfortable with, but what are you gonna do? These are his Favorite Sings. Finally, Paul and David vow to Never Fight Again.

Why is His Girl Friday the movie not a good idea, but Guys & Dolls magnificently was? The answer is in the third of David and Paul’s Three Questions For What Makes A Musical: Does it sing? Do I care? And, Why This Show, Why Now? A little sneak preview conversation about the Gordon & Goldsmith opus My Improbable Sisters, streaming now on YouTube (starring Jenna Lea Rosen and Tony™ nominee Jasmine Amy Rogers). Some Legally Blonde, some Les Miz (an epic disagreement about the scansion of “On My Own,” some firsthand John Caird stories from Paul… why David and Paul are loving writing their next big project, an adaption of Dickens’ Little Dorrit… and then, per Paul’s request, this week’s Paul & David Break It Down concerns one of David’s patter songs (a waltz, and with a French accent) from that very work-in-progress. A peek into David’s lyric-writing process and the collaboration between David and Paul writ large. Not that you asked. Wait though, you did. Enjoy.

After refusing to divulge the details of Paul’s lunch the previous day with David’s wife, Paul starts us off with a throwback to Dylan and why greatness in one genre isn’t always a guarantor of success in Musical Theatre. Then Paul divulges his three Groundbreaking Musicals: A Chorus Line, Company and Hamilton. This leads to a mock trial of Groundbreaking v Inspirational, with David representing the defense. An overdue look at the great song “Omar Sharif” from the great The Band’s Visit follows, and backstage stories of how that song, along with some of our greatest moments from our own stuff on Broadway, faced the back alley dumpsters before being rescued. A little song, a little dance, a little “The Miller’s Son” (from the foundational A Little Night Music) down your pants. Then back to our main subject of the day, how to make pop music work on a stage… and what to do about all those 8 beats in between lines they inevitably, problematically, bring along with them. What am I supposed to do here, Maestro? Hence, this week’s title.

Paul and David start off this week’s nerdfest on a tangent about their favorite musical of this season, Maybe Happy Ending, some more reflections on A Little Night Music (natch), and reminiscences about Theatre Projections of Olde (We’re looking at you, H2$). Then Paul and David treat us to some first-hand stories of Paul’s Jane Eyre on Broadway and David’s Motown The Musical on Broadway…and then the drill-down begins on what happens to your brain on Hamilton, and why you may not have been able to have gotten it all the first time (you won’t want to miss David spitting that Jefferson lick—or maybe you will). Finally, staying on theme, this week’s Paul & Dave Break-It-Down looks in granular detail at the great rap, yes, rap lyric of Jason Robert Brown’s “Wind In My Sails” from, you guessed it, The Connector.

In this rollicking premiere episode, David (Motown The Musical, Disney's Descendants 3) and Paul (Jane Eyre, Daddy Long Legs) launch right into a lively discussion of their favorite lyrics and lyricists, with of course, some Sondheim (and it won't be the last time). That leads to a moment to moment breakdown of what makes a great song and song lyric for the musical theatre, before Paul asks the big questions: what are three things you'd tell someone who wants to write their first musical? What are the three essential components of a great musical? And is Jason Robert Brown's The Connector the greatest music theatre score of the past seven years? All before David and Paul set the stage for all that's to come in future episodes. And with heavy cannon, wish you an unending Please Hello!