Surprise! With hopes of reuniting on a more regular basis, Alex & Kelsey are back to dive into this year’s movie musical mega hit, Wicked. Starting with the stage show’s inception, our hosts chart the course of this award-winning, chart-topping juggernaut, as they consider this year’s Oscar race, Arianna’s impeccable comedy chops, and what it *truly* means to “hold space.”

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Taking a quick pause on Season Two! To that end, congratulations to Kelsey on her amazing new job in another city! Bear with us while we figure out a plan for remote recording, but in the mean time, enjoy this quick update from Alex with some additional background on the change and a brief recap of some recent show biz drama! #LeaMicheleRedemptionArch

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The tea is spilled as Alex & Kelsey discuss feuds, beef, and the complicated political history of 1996’s Evita. In what the pod might consider their best work, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice delved into South American history to explore a deeply beloved, yet deeply flawed heroine in Eva Perón. Not only was Eva herself polarizing, but so was Madonna’s casting in the titular role. For better or worse (and no matter what Patti Lupone might think on the matter), A & K really loved this adaptation, and it shows in this lively, expansive, and enthralling episode.

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Tongue-in-cheek meets heart-on-sleeve as Alex & Kelsey gush over 1986’s cameo-filled Little Shop of Horrors. Not long before ushering in what’s now known as the Disney Renaissance, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken helped legitimize New York’s burgeoning Off-Off Broadway scene at the WPA Theater with an unlikely musical adaptation of 1960’s low-budget B-movie The Little Shop of Horrors. The smart, satirical take on monster movies, musical theater itself, and even the Faust story ended up striking gold by looking outside the box of what musical theater could be and integrating elements of pop, rock, and R&B. Little Shop of Horrors is brilliantly directed by puppet juggernaut Frank Oz, with cameos from comedy legends like John Candy, Bill Murray, and Steve Martin. So step into a world that’s green— within your fence of real chain link— sit back on your plastic-covered furniture, and enjoy the fantasy.

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Kelsey & Alex visit an often terrifying version of Oz in 1978’s box office dud and eventual cult classic The Wiz. Diana Ross led a seemingly relentless campaign to secure the film’s lead role (the unofficial fictionalization of which we discussed in our Dreamgirls episode), and her age being 33 at the time of filming resulted in a new director and a new script that transformed the film’s Dorothy from Broadway’s Kansas teen into a 24 year-old New York City school teacher. Due to these scattered story revisions and its monetary & critical failure, The Wiz tends to be known as the end of Hollywood’s 1970’s “blaxploitation” era and Ross’s big screen career. Join our dive into scantily clad modern dance, the horrifying uncanny valley of “skin suits” and facial prosthetics, and endless confusion as Dorothy’s “there’s no place like home” mantra apparently becomes, “you should actually definitely leave home, you old spinster!”

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Next on their journey through the decades, Alex and Kelsey examine Barbra Streisand’s breakout performance in 1968’s Funny Girl. For the first time ever, neither of our hosts had seen this film before, so their wide-eyed enthusiasm — especially concerning the dreamy Omar Sharif — is 100% genuine. Anachronisms abound as Alex & Kelsey discuss whether pants, beehives or winged eyeliner would have had any place in the teens and twenties, but ultimately the film navigates the treacherous byways of self-worth as Fanny comes to know for herself that she’s much more than just a Funny Girl.

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For this month’s 50’s installment, Kelsey and Alex discuss the racy camp of Rogers & Hammerstein’s first collaboration, Oklahoma!

Kelsey and Alex delve into Vincente Minnelli’s wartime love letter to simpler times, Meet Me in St. Louis. Featuring a star-making, coming-of-age performance from Judy Garland.