Transcript – How to Make Broadway More Accessible: “The Song of Purple Summer”

Ken Davenport: And now, before we go, just a few more folks I would like you to meet. They are the people who inspired me to spark this conversation. They’ve taught me a lot about the theater, they’ve taught me a lot about people, and they’ve taught me even more about myself. And they wanted the chance to say “thank you” in their own very special way. Ladies and gentlemen, the cast of Spring Awakening. (Applause)

The cast of Spring Awakening:

Listen to what’s in the heart of a child
A song so big in one so small
Soon you will hear where beauty lies
You’ll hear and you’ll recall
The sadness the doubt
All the loss, the grief
Will belong to some play from the past
As the child leads the way to a dream, a belief
A time of hope through the land

A summer’s day
A mother sings
A song of purple summer
Through the heart of everything
And heaven waits
So close it seems
To show her child the wonders
Of a world beyond her dreams

The earth will wave with corn
The day so wild, so warm
And mares will neigh
With stallions that they mate
Foals they’ve borne

And all shall know the wonder
Of purple summer

And so I wait
The swallow brings
A song of what’s to follow
The glory of the spring

The fences sway
The porches swing
The clouds begin to thunder
Crickets wander, murmuring

The earth will wave with corn
The day so wild, so warm
And mares will neigh
With stallions that they mate
Foals they’ve borne

And all shall know the wonder
I will sing the song of purple summer

All shall know the wonder
I will sing the song of purple summer

All shall know the wonder
Of purple summer . . .

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Ken created one of the first Broadway podcasts, recording over 250 episodes over 7 years. It features interviews with A-listers in the theater about how they “made it”, including 2 Pulitzer Prize Winners, 7 Academy Award Winners and 76 Tony Award winners. Notable guests include Pasek & Paul, Kenny Leon, Lynn Ahrens and more.

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