For the past few years, the Grammy winner for best musical theater album has gone to – Dear Evan Hansen, Hamilton, The Color Purple. The 2019 winner, The Band’s Visit, was likewise a favorite after its 2018 Tony win for best musical. The Band’s Visit’s composer, David Yazbek, Katrina Lenk, and co-musical supervisor and musical coordinator Dean Sharenow join host Rebecca Milzoff to discuss how they put together a beautiful original Broadway cast recording — and all became Grammy winners in the process. “Yazbek and I were making records that were not theater records for most of our lives…so we tend to approach things not as a cast album, but as a recording,” says Sharenow. “The choices were not made to make a cast album, they were made to make an album. The recording process was meant to be more soulful.” In their conversation along with host Milzoff, the trio discuss how they created the best studio environment to reconstruct the show’s live environment, Lenk offers insights in to how she adjusted through stage to recording presentation area, and Yazbek and Sharenow dish on their Grammy night time experience.

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Prior to taking the stage, he talked with Fallon about the single and the events that will occur. “The message is, you know, frequently when we have these insane tragedies happening in America, such as the Parkland shooting, and all these things, you have people saying, ‘I send my thoughts and prayers to this,'” he mentioned. “But a lot of times we’re lacking action. We’re not really doing anything about it. This song is all about that.” He then sat down on the piano to sing with the empowering track, with The Origins and a heavenly-sounded trio associated with back-up singers further underscoring its intensity. Legend ultimately grabbed the mic and moved toward the viewers to further connect with them as well as the song’s moving message. Watch Legend execute “Preach” with The Roots below.

“Are You Up? ” How many among us have sent or even received that text? Really basically the millennial motto, signaling to anyone 35 and younger. Three little words and phrases say so much, and it’s generally far from “I love you.” You don’t wanna be caught catchin’ feelings. That’s the vibe to the ultra-funky, super-sensual collaboration through Phantoms and Shaylen. The California duo requires the popular sentiment, pours it over a club-ready rhythm and decorates this with radio-friendly composition. It is the first single from a forth-coming EP due out in spring. “It’s about those late night loves we’ve all had from time to time. And it’s not necessarily a good or even bad thing, but you each know it’s not really going to be more. Working with Shaylen on this the track has been incredible. She’s incredibly talented and her tone of voice complemented the sultry late-night vibe of this track properly.” “I’ve definitely obtained my share of those night time ‘are you up’ text messages,” Shaylen adds. “Sometimes, I’ve replied. Other times, not so much. I like just how conversational ‘Are You Up’ is. It’s sincere and doesn’t try too much.” Like the majority of of the duo’s work, this gets stuck in your head immediately. Sing along with Phantoms and Shaylen’s “Are You Up” below.

Lou Gramm was the inimitable voice and some-time article writer, and Mick Jones the guitarist and main songwriter. Gramm left the music group in 2003 (replaced simply by Kelly Hansen), returning lately to play the odd 40th anniversary show, but is within Toronto, alongside Jones, to find the songs in another type: sung by the young ensemble of Jukebox Hero The Musical, the title which is from the pair’s break from 1981’s 4 release. The theatre production, spearheaded by Jones, managers Phil Carson plus Stewart Young and jukebox theatre promoter Jeff Parry, was workshopped last summer time in Alberta and had the world premiere this week within Toronto. It closes Weekend night. Other Foreigner hits weaved into the two-hour-and-20 minute display are “Cold As Snow,” “Dirty White Youngster,” “Double Vision,” “Feels Like The First Time,” “Head Games,” “Hot Blooded,” “I Shouldn’t Want To Live Without A person,” “I Want To Know Exactly what Love Is,” “Say You Will, “That Was Recently,” “Urgent” and “Waiting For A Girl Like You” See, you know them, correct? It was vocalist Diana Ross who rooted the seed of a music decades ago based on “Juke Box Hero.” Jones wrote the lyric right after he noticed a kid within Cincinnati waiting five hrs in the rain to meet Foreigner and was ushered backstage to watch the show, yet Jukebox Leading man The Musical isn’t about a starry-eye Foreigner fan. The particular book was written by Cock Clement and Ian Una Frenais, whose credits consist of The Obligations and Across The Universe, and tells the double story of a dying metal factory and two music performer brothers feuding over a young lady; one leaves and ties the army (Mace Perry, placed by David Erina Moore), while the other simply leaves and becomes a rock celebrity (Ryan Perry, played simply by Geordie Brown). It is directed by Randy Johnson (The Night With Janis Joplin), choreographed plus staged by Parker Este (Shaw Festival’s Me and My Lady, Grand Hotel), with music direction orchestration, arrangements and incidental songs by Mark Camilleri (Celine Dion, Sting, Eric Clapton, Andrea Bocelli). Billboard sat down along with Jones and Gramm within Toronto before the world elite. Gramm, who only heard bout the production six weeks ago, has been less chatty, but we all did find out about his programs since retiring from solitary touring. What were the circumstances that will led to Diana Ross recommending “Juke Box Hero” is actually a musical? I wouldn’t believe Foreigner and Diana Ross crossed paths a lot. Jones : It wouldn’t were a bad combo actually, I must say [laughs]. Where do you see her that the girl made that comment? It was within Atlanta. We were both journeying back to New York and we had been in this little VIP region and it was just all of us in the room. I think it had been just pre or submit The Wiz [1978]. She was getting involved within theatrical production and without warning, she said, “You understand, you have a great song. It might work as a musical. Really great idea. ” It was “Juke Box Hero. ” I believed, “Wow, she knows that music.” Gramm to Jones: Did Gene [Simmons] let her know that? Jones : I’m unsure. Did she cover this, you’re saying? Gramm : Simply no, no, I was wondering in case Gene Simmons… Jones : Oh yea, they were together at that point. Gramm : Yeah, yeah. Oh, so probably Gene played it just for Diana? Gramm : Probably. I’m certain there’s been many fans through the years that have waited five hrs in the rain to see Foreigner. Lou, do you remember this person being brought into the place, soaking wet, to watch the particular show from side phase? Gramm : I may actually, no. Why did he or she inspire the lyric, Mick? Jones : This simply stood out for me. We took pity on the child because he had all the cds and had all the stuff to indication and he was drenched towards the skin. I invited your pet back and his eyes proceeded to go [opens eyes wide, like the lyric ‘saw stars in his eyes’]. I remember this clearly because it was a small moment, an emotional issue. And I identified it by it a bit. In what way? Jones : The particular dreams that I had while i was that age. I was by no means one to wait outside the phase door, but just the vision, bringing that kid within and we showed him the particular works. We had him onstage with us. He was quietly of the stage, and he had been living the dream. You’ve in no way heard from him considering that, but there’s currently research online to find him. No one offers stepped up and stated, “It was me? We stood outside in the rainfall for five hours and also you brought me backstage plus onstage”? Jones : Probably he doesn’t even keep in mind it [laughs]. Have you place word out in Cincinnati? Jones : Yeah, yet I haven’t heard a lot about it to tell you the reality. Would be kind of cool [to find him]. Gramm to Jones: Are radio stations searching? Jones : Yeah, I think therefore. How can you start on a project like this? Would you say, “Here is our own catalog”? Did you speak with them about what the lyrics had been about? Jones : I had formed known Dick, and Ian was a personal friend associated with mine. We got into the particular songs a bit, trying to construct the big picture of exactly where it was going and what the storyplot would try and portray. This wasn’t the verbatim tale from the song. It was used into another area. This felt in some way that it actually represented us and they had been sensitive to that. I understood them quite well and socially and they’d known myself. Would you like musicals? The rock globe and the musical theater entire world are quite separate. Jones : I go occasionally. I could see the ABBA one, Mamma Mia . I went to see Rock of Age groups ; there was something about this that exaggerated too much, looking to get reactions. Gramm : I saw so. I saw Phantom [ of the Opera ] and it was magnificent. Do you have parameters? Don’t create our songs too “show tuney. ” Would that will be job of music director? Jones: Yes or the interpretation from the actor who is singing. Those things go into account. I’m certain as [the show] proceeds — and ideally it gets a living of its own — which will develop even more. There’s a great deal of dialogue in it too. The background music is the principal. Mick, you were delivered in Portsmout [UK], which was an industrial city and naval port. Tingle has his musical out there now in Toronto, The Last Ship, about the demise from the shipbuilding industry. Does the storyplot of a dying steel stock resonate with you and your loved ones background? Jones : Yes, a lot of my family were the working class. And I keep aware of details. I see what’s happening in the united states, for example , what’s happening across the world. There’s a tremendous amount of joblessness and nobody seems to have the solution to it. You’ve got people that have proved helpful 35, 40 years in the work that is their family, plus suddenly it’s torn aside at that point in their lives whenever they deserve to be enjoying this. They’re victims of business greed, the whole capitalist business thing that we live in. We now have never been a politics band. We’ve never composed protest songs [but] I think it’s important. What’s transformed since the workshop production from the musical in Alberta? Jones : There’s been song improvements. One that the director as well as the producers heard that was not presented but was on an project that we released a few years back again [2011’s Acoustique & More ]. It was the song [“Save Me”] that I wrote with our step-daughter Samantha [Ronson]. She’s a great writer plus lyricist. And as soon because the script-writers and the producer noticed it, they said, “It’s have to be in the show. inch It was written in a put vein, and then when the music group got hold of it and the arranger, it completely changed. From the very poignant part of the display now. Are there plans to take Jukebox Hero to other cities or perhaps to Broadway or Off-Broadway? Jones : Obviously, that might be a dream come true. I hope it can resonate with people. From exactly what I’ve seen already, it appears to be accepted. Boy, if this hits Broadway, even Off-Broadway, I’m open to that. This is a good way for these classic songs that individuals know — even if imply know they know all of them — to get more life. Jones : That’s an interesting matter because over the years we were unable a band that was drunk over MTV all the time. All of us never wanted to take that will kind of direction. We were unable in the glossy magazines a lot. Gramm : Where the image had been more important than the music, correct? Jones : In a way, we were silently very successful. Very often, men and women listened to the radio and they listen to the songs, they don’t keep in mind necessarily [which band it is]. They have perhaps it a little choice of regarding four maybe — Trip, maybe Boston who were close to when we first started, yet we have to remind them. When they hear the first chord, these people think, “Oh my the almighty, is that them? ” Jukebox Hero isn’t only for your fans. It reveals your music to movie theater goers and potentially to some newer generation — the majority of the cast weren’t even given birth to then — to revive the particular catalog or get more fruit juice out of it. Jones : It really is our living. You have to be conscious of the opportunities to keep the royalties coming in and all the other obligations we have. It’s a job, you understand? It’s our careers and exactly what we do. Lou, is it genuine that you’re not going to be traveling with your solo band any longer? Gramm : Yes. Was that encourage of the moment when you produced that announcement this past Dec or had you already been thinking about it? Gramm : The particular announcement was spur from the moment, but the decision have been made a while ago. Why is that? Gramm : I’m just in the point now where Let me turn my attention to individuals I love and other things that I like. Exactly what else do you enjoy performing? Muscle mass cars. Buying or fixing? I have a little collection. I enjoy fixing all of them and driving them. Novice a passion of my own since before I was outdated enough to drive. And in Rochester, there’s a very short time where one can drive cars where a possibility snowing and it also happens to be a period when we’re touring probably the most. So I want to put that period aside. I read that there’s possible that the two of you might focus on new music, that demos are actually sent to each other? Gramm : Oh yeah. There’s a possibility for your. For sure. Jones: Yeah, certainly. We’ve been so busy inform the truth. It’s pretty strenuous. It’s just finding that period when you can take a week someplace, and even five or 6 days, just to get together plus try and think back to exactly where we were heading with the suggestions. I listened to a couple of paths last week and I definitely noticed some ideas in there that are very valid.

Wade Robson and James Safechuck didn’t know what to think once the lights went up following the first public screening associated with “Leaving Neverland” past due last month at the Sundance Film Festival. In the documentary that will air within two parts on HBO and Britain’s Station 4 in March, each describe, in harrowing details, how they say Michael Jackson sexually abused them as boys. It was the second period they’d seen this and the first with viewers. At intermission director Dan Reed actually wondered whether or not they were likely to be able to make it through the Q&A they’d guaranteed to do. Safechuck said it had been like being “punched in the face.” But they remained, and watched, and as the particular credits rolled the few hundred people in the market stood and applauded solemnly. Robson, thirty six, and Safechuck, 40, produced their way to the phase, a little shell-shocked still through reliving it all again, yet overcome with emotion. This took them a minute to understand why: It was the first time they’d ever experienced community support for telling their own stories. It’s been a turbulent few years for both guys, ever since they came forwards as adults to state abuse after Jackson got died in 2009 and after getting previously said at various points that there was not one. Robson testified in Jackson’s defense at the 2006 molestation trial that using the superstar’s acquittal. Legal cases against Jackson’s property detailing the abuse possess been  dismissed just for procedural reasons, although an appeal will be pending. Jackson’s estate continues to  attack their trustworthiness  , and they’ve encountered disbelief and also threats from fans. Upon Thursday the  property filed a lawsuit against HBO. Alleging the film violates a contract to demonstrate a 1992 Jackson live concert that requires that the network not really disparage the singer later on. When Reed, a U.K. filmmaker who is more accustomed to addressing war and terrorism, contacted the men separately within 2017 about telling their own story through a documentary, these were understandably reticent, but made a decision to meet with him out of interest. “I used to be concerned about somebody just sensationalizing the story,” Safechuck informed The Associated Press the morning after that first screening, along with Reed and Robson with his side. “Is person out to just merged a piece for people to watch since it’s Michael? Or even is it somebody who is likely to tell the story of survivors and abuse and what that’s like? ” Robson, a mentioned choreographer who has worked with other brands Britney Spears and ’N Sync, had a lot more experience with the media plus was especially cautious, yet agreed to a lunch. I felt quite comfortable pretty quickly which he was a man of condition,” Robson said. Reed didn’t have an agenda or a strategy. He was just generally there to listen and document. So that they agreed. Robson was evaluated across three days, and Safechuck for two. “I wanted to keep a totally open mind,” Reed said. “In the end, there is absolutely no video of Michael Jackson abusing Wade and James. There is no cache of pictures. So what you’re performing is listening to the person plus making a judgment about regardless of whether there is any truth delete word.” The particular film details how Robson, Safechuck and their families found know and trust Jackson at the height of their fame in the 1980s plus early 1990s, the claimed abuse, which Robson states started at age 7 plus Safechuck says began at 10, and the trauma that will emerged as adults if they both started to understand what occurred to them. Both of their moms are also interviewed, as are their particular wives and two associated with Robson’s siblings. Reed found this individual didn’t have to inquire many questions, but this individual did give them some guidance: Don’t offer comments or try to process instantly, just say what happened. It had been cathartic for Robson. “I had currently come up against so much pushback and adversity in relation to informing the truth and trying to inform the truth that it had turn out to be instinctual to me and regular to me to constantly feel as if I have to explain myself plus explain the story and describe the conflicting feelings. Lalu giving us that path to not do that ended up becoming an extremely powerful experience for me. This enabled me to be very much more present in the informing of the story, which wound up being so therapeutic,” Robson said. “Simply going through the interview procedure was an extremely healing encounter.” That will wasn’t the case meant for Safechuck, however. “Yeah, no,” Safechuck said with a reluctant laugh. “I don’t think it was since therapeutic for me. It was hard. ” Yet both are glad that will their stories are going to be out there soon, even though the pushback is just getting stronger from supporters and Jackson’s property. The property has vehemently denounced the particular documentary, attacking the reliability of Robson and Safechuck, as well as the filmmaker for not which includes other voices who understood Jackson. “It’s the story of such two families and not of all of the other people who were or weren’t abused by Michael Jackson,” Reed mentioned. “How is interviewing an individual who was friends with Knutson who saw nothing likely to help me tell the story? The truth that Jackson for many hours within the day was not abusing kids doesn’t mean that for a number of hours a day he wasn’t. ” The estate has said Robson sought work on a Jackson-themed Cirque du Soleil display and raised the molestation allegations only after this individual wasn’t hired. “It’s just completely inaccurate,” Robson said. “I used to be hired three times for different iterations of that Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil show, in order to choreograph it. I was never ever denied a role. I was taken out from the project 3 times because of the nervous breakdowns I was going through.” Robson said the particular nervous breakdowns led him to speak to his therapist the first time about the abuse, and began the journey he’s on now. An iconic figure during death, Jackson’s social resonance remains as effective as ever. A phase musical, “Don’t Stop ’ Til You obtain Enough,” is set to spread out on Broadway in the summer associated with 2020 and his songs continue to be a fixture on the stereo. Neither Safechuck nor Robson has any guidance meant for how audiences should watch Jackson or his songs after watching. “That’s to allow them to decide,” Safechuck mentioned. For each, it’s about losing a light on sexual misuse, and not about Jackson’s legacy, although it’s likely the film may have an impact on that too. “Jordan was an extremely complex shape, like many people are, plus there are aspects to your pet that are good and you can find things he did in the life that were good. And was also a sick guy who sexually abused all of us and I believe many others,” Robson said. “It’s just not black and white. These items exist at the same time. Hopefully everyone can just open our thoughts about that.” “Leaving Neverland” may air in two components on HBO at 6 p.m. eastern on March 3-4.

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