Bernstein, Broadway, Rock - Keith Lockhart on the Boston Pops' Upcoming Season

What's especially sweet for conductor Keith Lockhart about this upcoming season of the Boston Pops is that he gets to conduct the music of Leonard Bernstein. From the opening night concert on May 9 through a closing night concert performance of "West Side Story," the orchestra honors Bernstein, the composer/conductor/educator/celebrity who had a long history with the Boston Symphony and the Pops. Even before he became an overnight sensation in 1943 by covering ailing conductor Bruno Walter for a New York Philharmonic concert at Carnegie Hall, Bernstein had conducted the Pops. And his last public performance was leading the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood just months before his death in October 1990.

In addition to highlighting two of his greatest musicals with a semi-staged "On The Town" (May 31 and June 1) and the aforementioned "West Side Story" (June 15 and 16), there is a Leonard Bernstein Centennial Tribute that Lockhart conducts for five performances (May 11, 12, 17, 29 and 30) that will feature a distinguished line-up performing music from the composer's vast and eclectic output.

And beyond Bernstein, the season shapes up as indicative of the bold programming Lockhart has brought to the Pops over the years that finds a happy balance between the traditional and the innovative. Lockhart has made such changes to the orchestra over the years, introducing pop and rock artists, dance events, circus groups and movie screenings, that it is doubtful Arthur Fiedler (the Pops founder and longest-lasting conductor) would even recognize the orchestra.

Just this season alone brings pop and rock artists Andy Grammer and Alfie Boe, and Broadway stars Leslie Odum, Jr. and Sutton Foster to the Symphony Hall stage; as well as tributes to film choreography and an evening celebrating Disney's Broadway Hits. In addition, there are such returning favorites as Gospel Night and a tribute to John Williams, Lockhart's predecessor with the orchestra who has composed some of the best-known film scores in Hollywood history.

EDGE spoke to Lockhart, who begins his 23rd season with the orchestra on May 9, in a conversation about the upcoming season.

EDGE: This year's Pops season celebrates Leonard Bernstein on the occasion of the centenary of his birth. Bernstein had a decades-long relationship with the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops. How are you and the orchestra celebrating him?

Keith Lockhart: Obviously it is not just the Boston Symphony and the Pops paying tribute to Bernstein this year, it's the whole musical universe and I am glad to play a part. For one thing, of course, he is ours. He is from Lawrence, Massachusetts. On top of that had a special relationship with the Boston Symphony and Tanglewood. And the Boston Pops. His first professional conducting assignment was with the Boston Pops in 1941. So, this year it has been figuring out what part of his multi-faceted career to focus on. For the Pops, the most appropriate one is his incredible musical theater output, which leads us to do a concert version of "West Side Story" and a semi-staged version of "On The Town." As well as our usual concerts that will feature some wonderful singers performing songs from all of his shows.

EDGE: Over his career Bernstein wore many hats - composer, conductor, educator, celebrity amongst them. Now nearly 30 years since his death, how do we evaluate his legacy?

Keith Lockhart: Well, I do think that we tend to have more objective viewpoints of people - composers, especially, when they are dead and gone. That's unfortunate, I suppose. But, yeah, when he was alive he was such an incredible presence. He was just a huge personality - the kind that American classical music had never seen. Now looking 27-plus years later we are able to see how much he did contribute. He was as much of a conductor as he was a personality and an educator; but those things are most effective when someone is alive. The real legacy is in the body of the work he composed. He did write of course music for the concert stage - symphonies, the Serenade for violin solo, "Chichester Psalms"; but I think the part of his output that had the most impact on the most people is his musical theater output, in particular, of course, "West Side Story." If he had just written "West Side Story," we would still consider him a great composer for the musical theater. But on top of that writing, he wrote "On the Town" and "Candide." There is a lot to look at. He had an amazing crossover skill set. He was somebody who could write very seriously and someone who could write using elements of pop songs and jazz and rock.

EDGE: Over the years his musical theater work has gotten far more attention and acclaim than his symphonic and choral output. Do you think his more "serious" music gets the short-shrift?

Keith Lockhart: I do. That would be pretty much true of anybody who straddles the crossover realm. It is easy to look at the popular stuff and ignore his more serious work. One of the things that people have commented on is that he was so busy being Leonard Bernstein during his life - being one of the world's most celebrated conductors and spokesman and advocate of classical music - his more serious output was ignored. To begin with, his serious output isn't huge. He didn't have the chance to write hours and hours of music and sculpt it as he moved along in his career. His most fertile period in terms of classical composition is also his most fertile in terms of composing for the musical theater - the late 1940s and 1950s. And he lived for 30+ years after that. That being said, I love his other material as well. I am doing the Bernstein Mass, the "Chichester Psalms," and a number of his symphonies through the end of the year. I made sure I used the centennial as an excuse for me to check fill my Leonard Bernstein empty boxes.

EDGE: Last Fourth of July on the Esplanade, pop star Andy Grammer performed with the Pops. Why did you ask him back to open the season on May 9?

Keith Lockhart: It's funny when you find someone who is not a crossover artist, you wonder how he'd do on the Fourth of July? Andy is very much in the pop world. But in some cases, you sense a perfect fit of performer and orchestra, which was the case with Andy on the Fourth. He was so positive and his music was great for the Fourth of July audience. It is the kind of pop that appeals to people across the spectrum. He wanted to do more of it, so we said if you want to do more, let's expand your show and bring you in for a proper orchestra show at Symphony Hall and he jumped at the chance. It is not every pop artist who is interested in expanding their musical repertoire. We are happy to open the season with him. He certainly will bring his fans and we will combine them with our fans.

EDGE: One of the more ambitious concerts you have planned is the "Dance To The Movies" concert on June 9 for matinee and evening performances. What is it and how did it come about?

Keith Lockhart: It is actually funny. We worked with the same group of people a few years ago on a concert that brought dancers and vocal performers familiar to the public on such shows as "So You Can Think You Can Dance" and "Dancing with the Stars" and "The Voice" to Symphony Hall. We loved the show, which was also very popular, and wanted to bring them back doing something different. And they had this cinematic show to offer. We plan on featuring the "Dancing with the Stars" Celebrity Pros, "So You Think You Can Dance" top finalists and singing stars from "American Idol" and "The Voice," along with Broadway and Hollywood star Leslie Anne Warren.

We love when we can integrate dance and motion and things that are extra-musical into our concerts. This is always a challenge in Symphony Hall because the room was built for concerts, not for shows; but it worked so spectacularly the last time, we wanted to do again. And this is a concert we are performing as a matinee as well as an evening performance because people love bringing their kids to. We are trying to find more times beside the holidays when the Boston Pops can be viewed as family entertainment.

EDGE: You are also bringing Tony-winner Leslie Odom, Jr. (June 12 and 13) back after he performed with the Pops last year...

Keith Lockhart: This is somewhat unusual in that we rarely bring someone back a second year in a row. But he was with us for one concert - a fundraising event - and it was so oversold. At the time, so many people asked why didn't we have more days with Leslie Odom? So, we asked him then to come back this year and do some more and he was all over the idea. I knew of him through his success in "Hamilton," but had no idea what a truly mesmerizing artist he is. Amazing on stage, amazing vocally, amazing on stage. He is also a graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University, one of the most prestigious drama schools in the country, and one I taught at for six years right out of college and was heavily associated with their musical theater department. So, there is some distant pride on my part in his accomplishments.

EDGE: You are also having an evening of Disney's Broadway Hits (May 12 and 13, matinees), which celebrates the work of composer Alan Menkin, responsible for some of the best-known musicals in the Disney canon. How did this come about?

Keith Lockhart: That show is actually one that Disney commissioned and put together two years ago. I had the honor of doing the world premiere at Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Concert Orchestra that was televised on Eurovision. It is an amazingly strong show that was put together for the 25th anniversary of Disney musicals on Broadway. It is hard to believe Disney musicals came from the screen to the stage just 25 years ago when "Beauty and the Beast" was such a hit. And the reason it focuses on Alan Menkin, of the shows that have been world-wide successes for Disney and turned into live stage shows, so many of them are Menkin and (Howard) Ashman shows. Of course, the evening also includes "Mary Poppins," which made a very screen-to-stage transition as well. But when you look at the musical riches that are now familiar to multi-generations at this point - "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid" and "Pocahontas" and "Aladdin" - it is an amazing family treasure trove.

EDGE: British musical sensation Alfie Boe is also coming to the Pops for two nights (May 15 and 16). How did that happen?

Keith Lockhart: He is not a newcomer to us completely. It's funny he is one of the biggest - if not the biggest - UK-based pop singers these days. He has a Josh Groban level of name recognition there. We worked with Alfie the first time in 2001-2002 when he was the star of the Baz Luhrmann directed "La Boh�me" on Broadway. We did excerpts from "La Boh�me" on an Asian tour where he sang the Rudolfo role and he was incredible. That was when he was very much in the operatic tenor side of things before his pop career took over. The last time we worked with him was last summer at Tanglewood when he did The Who's "Quadrophenia," which is a project that Pete Townshend put together. Alfie came and sang all the lead vocal stuff because Pete doesn't sing that high anymore. So, Alfie sang all the Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend stuff and was amazing. I mean, so great on stage - really kind-of Rock God persona. It is not something I had ever seen him do before. Pete thinks he's one of the greatest singers around. So instead of doing just The Who this time around, we asked why not other bands from that era - Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones and, of course, The Who? He was really interested in developing the project. I am thinking it is going to be incredibly successful.

EDGE: One of the best nights of the year honors John Williams (May 23 and 24), who will be returning to Boston to conduct...

Keith Lockhart: He is still amazing. He is not doing 7 or 8 movies a year as he was at his peak - he is 86. But he is still writing. And this past month he became the most nominated person ever at the Academy Awards. I had the pleasure last month of seeing the most recent "Star Wars" movie. I don't know where it comes from - he is still a well of invention. He has been writing film scores for 60+ years now. It's funny I have known him for a quarter of a century and I am still am in awe.

EDGE: Sutton Foster was extraordinary when she sang with the Pops a few years ago, so it is great to see her coming back on June 6 and 7...

Keith Lockhart: Yes. She was with us three years ago. She is one of the happiest discoveries. I hadn't worked with her before her first appearance and found her amazing. She is a compelling performer with such a glorious voice. We wanted her to come back and are so happy that we made it happen. We love it when people are as honored to be there as we are with them.

EDGE: But back to Bernstein. You are conducting a semi-staged version of his first Broadway musical "On The Town" (May 31 and June 1) How did this come about?

Keith Lockhart: It came about because the Bernstein Foundation - the Bernstein's kids and people that control his legacy - really wanted to see what we would do with a Pops version of the musical. That score is amazingly fresh and inventive. He wrote it when he was 26-years old. And it was choreographed by Jerome Robbins, also 26-years old. Then Betty Comden and Adolph Green (who wrote the book and lyrics) thrown in. The way it uses balletic dance as an equal partner in telling the story makes it a truly innovative show. There is an incredible amount of great music because Bernstein wrote these beautiful dance episodes - pieces unto themselves - to tell the dance part of the story. I reached out to Kathleen Marshall immediately to find a choreographer worthy of this kind of assignment and think we found one of the best choreographers on Broadway today. We are not doing a fully staged production, but one of the things is that the orchestra size is reduced from full Boston Pops grandeur, which gives us a little more room on the stage. Plus, we can build the stage out some to allow for I think enough room to tell the story in a compelling way.

EDGE: One of the high points of the season looks to be the concert version of "West Side Story" (June 15 and 16). Have you conducted the score before?

Keith Lockhart: You know, I have never conducted the entire show. It's funny, with my relationship with musical theater, I have yet to conduct "West Side Story" start to finish. It is such an iconic show. And we are doing it as a concert. We won't be focusing on the dance elements - just the music.

Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops perform their spring season from May 9 through June 16 at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA. For details of the season and ticket information, visit the Boston Pops website.