{"podcast":{"title":"Closing Night","slug":"closing-night-6469355","podcast_index_feed_id":6469355,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/closingnight","website_url":"https://broadwaypodcastnetwork.com/podcast/closing-night/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/2bf54e30-ece8-11ed-a593-5fb14b3bb4ec/image/0e5e80b73eca08e43e01183cdb9984a4.jpeg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"WINMI Media, LLC","episode_count":47,"summary":"Every Broadway show has an opening night. This podcast is about what happens next. Closing Night explores famous and forgotten shows that closed too soon, using the stories of individual productions to uncover the larger history of Broadway. Through deep research and immersive storytelling, each episode examines the artists, ambitions, successes, and failures that have defined American theater. From legendary flops to celebrated classics, every closing night has a story worth telling.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-06T08:18:11.835863+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/closing-night-6469355"},"episode":{"title":"Lolita. My Love","slug":"lolita-my-love","published_at":"2025-05-31T04:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/closing-night-6469355/lolita-my-love","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/closing-night-6469355","url":"https://broadwaypodcastnetwork.com/podcasts/closing-night","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/BPNET6637389908.mp3?updated=1752077725","summary":"In 1958, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita shocked American readers with its provocative tale of obsession and manipulation—just as Alan Jay Lerner’s musical Gigi, featuring the now-cringeworthy “Thank Heaven for Little Girls,” was charming its way to nine Oscars. Though vastly different in tone, both stories revolved around older men’s fixation on adolescent girls. Which makes it all the more surprising that Lerner, the man behind Gigi’s sugar-coated serenade, would take on Lolita for the stage just over a decade later. In this episode, we explore Lolita, My Love—a musical adaptation plagued by rewrites, walkouts, and uncomfortable audience reactions. With music by James Bond composer John Barry and direction from a team trying to toe the line between art and provocation, the production aimed high but never made it to Broadway. Instead, it became one of theater’s most fascinating failures, collapsing under the weight of its subject matter—and proving that some stories may simply resist musicalization. --- Theme music created by Blake Stadnik. Click ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ for a transcript and list of all resources used. Produced by Patrick Oliver Jones and WINMI Media with Dan Delgado as co-producer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices","meta_description":"In 1958, Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita shocked American readers with its provocative tale of obsession and manipulation—just as Alan Jay Lerner’s musical Gigi…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3266,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/closing-night-6469355/episodes/lolita-my-love/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/closing-night-6469355/lolita-my-love.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}