My guest today is the prolific and award-winning book writer and lyricist Stephen Cole who joins me today to talk about his new novel: Mary & Ethel…and Mikey Who?

I found it to be a terrific book, both wildly funny and very moving. And as you will hear, at times it feels like Stephen wrote this novel especially for me, and for the fans of this podcast.

Stephen Cole is an award-winning musical theatre writer whose shows have been produced from New York City to London to the Middle East and Australia. His off-Broadway musical with Matthew Ward, AFTER THE FAIR, was nominated for the Outer Critic's Circle Award for Best Musical and was subsequently produced in London to great acclaim.THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER won the prestigious Edward Kleban Award and was produced in New York City, Dallas, and San Francisco, where it was nominated for several Bay Area Theatre Awards. The award-winning 1998 concept CD features Ron Raines, Sally Mayes, and Dorothy Loudon. SATURDAY NIGHT AT GROSSINGER'S has had successful runs in Texas (starring Gavin MacLeod), Los Angeles, and Florida. Broadway legend Chita Rivera toured in CASPER, and Hal Linden and Dee Hoty starred in the world premiere of his musical adaptation of DODSWORTH.In 2005, Stephen was commissioned to write ASPIRE, the first American musical to premiere in the Middle East. This experience resulted in another musical about the creation of that show entitled THE ROAD TO QATAR!, produced to rave reviews and awards Off-Broadway, in London, and at the Edinburgh Festival, garnering a Best Musical nomination. Among his other produced shows are ROCK ODYSSEY, which played to hundreds of thousands of kids for ten seasons of productions at the Adrienne Arscht Center in Miami, and MERMAN'S APPRENTICE, presented in concert at Birdland in New York City, followed by an all-star cast album on Jay Records, and an acclaimed premiere production in Sonoma, CA in 2019. Stephen's latest critically acclaimed musical is GOIN' HOLLYWOOD.Stephen's published books include That Book About That Girl and I Could Have Sung All Night, the Marni Nixon story, currently in development as a feature film from Amazon. Stephen has also written several published stories and his real-life friendships with Ethel Merman and Mary Martin resulted in this, his first novel. Visit www.stephencolewriter.org.

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