July 29, 2025 • 15 mins
Original Air Date: July 27, 2025
Rebecca Blake is the producer of the Off Broadway musical “Rolling Thunder”, which takes us back to the days of The Vietnam War.
Rebecca Blake is the producer of the Off Broadway musical “Rolling Thunder”, which takes us back to the days of The Vietnam War.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Greasy Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I want to introduce you to Rebecca Blake. She is
the producer of what she calls her baby, Rolling Thunder.
It is a musical. It is off Broadway. It has
opened at the New World Stages and we've been giving
away tickets all week long and so we're very excited
(00:32):
about this show. So when you say, Rebecca, this is
your baby, what do you mean.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Well, it started back in twenty fourteen, and I had
always worked in entertainment, marketing of shows, and I had
always worked in you know, with Fleetwood Mac Rolling Stones.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Neil Diamond.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I used to do music as in rock concerts, and
so I've always been a huge fan of music and
my partner and I at the time were looking at doing,
you know, a collection of songs from the late sixties
and seventies, and that's my genre. I was born in
the sixties and it kind of grew from there. We
(01:14):
commissioned to writer Bryce Hallett, who's a journalist from Australia,
and he did some interviews with veterans and it just grew.
And so the stories you hear in the show are
from interviews that we did with veterans and their families
and it's just special.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
It combines this amazing iconic rock songs that we're even
and out of these stories and we have projection and
it's a real insight to that era. I mean, people
come to the show and they don't know what to
expect and they all walk out with wow. If anything,
I learned a whole lot of stuff today about what
(01:54):
went on in the late sixties.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So we're talking about obviously the Vietnam War. Yes, so
tell me some of the stories that Brace uncovered and
what is an Australian journalist doing doing the Vietnam War
where the United States was so heavily involved, and you know,
(02:19):
it just changed the whole generation, myself included Rebecca.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Well, we get asked this question a lot, and we
were in Vietnam with you. We have fought every major
battle with you since World War One. And people don't
know that Australia and New Zealand were in Vietnam War.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
No. No, And it's.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Amazing because we were you know, our soldiers got home
and were treated badly. It was almost like mirrored of
what happened here, happened in Australia and in New Zealand,
and so.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Believable, and that I didn't know that. And you know,
like I said, this is my era, this is part
of my growing up. How many Australians and New Zealanders
did we lose in the Vietnam War?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Look in comparison to what you lost, we lost five
hundred and twenty one soldiers and you know we went
with fifty eight thousand troops. That was Australia compared to you.
Your loss was you know, approximately fifty eight thousand and
nine million people served during that time from the US,
(03:33):
so in comparison, but for us being a small population,
it still.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Treated with respect in Australia.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
And when I found that we were putting this show together,
the veterans were a big part of it. They contributed
to the landscape, to the photography, the warm l and
Australia and Canberra got behind it. We found that the
veterans really embraced this show from day one, and we're
(04:08):
finding that here that every night since the previews started,
we have vets in the audience and we actually thanked
the veterans at the end of the show, and I
think for you know, you're a very patriotic country compared
to what we are used to in Australia. And I
think in Australia when we did that, everyone was blown away.
And this shows not just for veterans, it's for people
(04:31):
of all ages. We had schools come, we had teachers,
we had grandparents bring grandchildren, you know, we had teenagers
and they all said, wow, this is so cool because of.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
The music factor.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
I mean, this music's universal and it was written by
Americans back when all this turbulence was happening. So that's
a big part of our show. But yes, we participated
in Vietnam and here we are. You know, it's been
a long journey. We've done three or four subsequent tours
(05:12):
in Australia. And you know how I got here was
in twenty three a veteran saw this show and said,
I must I vowed to help you get this to America.
US audiences deserve to see this show. And in Australia
(05:32):
it was very raw, it was very simple, and it
was told from the Australian perspective. So we then adapted
the script from American audiences. The storyline is still the same.
Johnny meets Linda, they fall in love, they get engaged.
One of the characters is a boy from Nebraska, Johnny,
(05:57):
who works on the land and is quite adventurous and
excited to go to Vietnam. Then we have two other
boys in the show that play soldiers once conscripted and
he's still working out why he's there. And then one's
the son of a US marine and he's trying to
make his dad proud. So all in all, we you know,
(06:20):
we found that we we have this show and it's
audiences are loving it, getting immersed in the stories, and
we're just thrilled to be here. You know, I was
only told ten weeks ago we had a theater, so
you can imagine how quickly we had to turn this around.
I'd been coming backwards and forwards to the States for
(06:41):
the last eighteen months. My daughter was a student at
Columbia University, so I had family here, so that was
lovely for me to come. But you know, I have
a great American director, Kenneth Farron, and the musicians. You know,
everyone in the cast is American. Musicians are American, and
(07:03):
it's really special. As you can see, I'm very passionate
about it, and I just love this show. Hence I
call it my baby because it's like that. There's been
times when I've thought maybe I'm too close to it,
but it's been born out of love and I still
(07:23):
am in awe of it every night. I don't ever
get sick of seeing it night after night. I'm speaking
with Rebecca Blake. She is the producer of Rolling Thunder.
It is a musical off Broadway.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
It is now open and the closing date is September seventh,
but of course we're hoping it goes on far longer.
It's at the New World Stages. You have a component,
don't you, where there are to try to get more
veterans to see Rolling Thunder.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Well, We've partnered with American Legion and a percentage of
our merchandise goes back to American Legion. We want as
many veterans to see this show. I mean, what we
found astonishing was in Australia, and I'm sure it's going
to be the same here. A lot of vets can't
talk about their experiences. They all suffer from PTSD and
(08:20):
they come to the show and they hug me, they
thanked me. They're eternally grateful for this show. It seems
to have, you know, their wives come up to me
and say, my husband hasn't been able to talk about
this experience and thank you, thank you for bringing this
to the stage. And it's also an era we don't
(08:41):
want to forget. It's in our curriculum in Australia. You know,
students that are the age of sixteen seventeen have to
learn about all the wars that we participated in. And
I'm sure that's the same here. But you know, nineteen
sixty eight for the US was a very turbulent time
(09:03):
and we cover a little bit of that in this show.
We don't want it, you know, we try not to
get too political, but we do touch on Martin Luther
King's assassination, Bobby Kennedy's assassination, LBJ, you know, we Nixon,
you know, Walter kohnkright, They're they're all featured in this show,
and I think for a lot of people that see
(09:25):
it's it's a little maybe down memory lane for them.
And you know, there are times in the show when
it does become sad, but then by the end of
the show, everyone's on their feet dancing. I always describe
it as joyous and this era was when you think back,
(09:49):
we always say, out of this ugliness, this music of
beauty appeared and we featured twenty iconic songs in it.
From Killing Me Softly helped me make it through the night,
Magic carpet ride, people get ready, all along the watchtower.
It just it's, you know, a bridge over troubled water.
(10:11):
It's amazing the songbook that we've got in the show.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
You know, you had such a wealth of music to
pick from, so how did you choose.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Well, all the music has strategically been chosen to be
placed in the story, so every song you hear in
this story has a meaning. Look in Australia, part of
my journey with this show was getting the rights to
the music, and that would take me two years sometimes
because every time I did the show, I'd have to
(10:43):
go for the rights again. Here, I haven't had to
do that, And you're right, there is such a wealth
of music that we can choose from. There were a
few songs we couldn't get, which was sad for me,
but then we replaced them songs from Bob Dylan, hard
Rein's going to fall the stones give me shelter. So
(11:06):
at the end of the day, you're right. We can
always replace the songs if you know. We had to,
and we had to replace about three coming here this time,
but they all have a place in the storyline, so
it's great.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
What are your hopes for Rolling Thunder moving forward? I mean,
I know you're in the thick of it. You just
opened and you know you're you're on It's running at
least through September seventh, So what are your hopes for
Rolling Thunder?
Speaker 3 (11:40):
I'd like to take it around America and do a
national tour. I think you know, this show has always
been ground roots. You know, we came to New York
because it became available, but we know that we're probably
never going to recoup in New York. But it's a
good place. It's a stepping stone for this show because
(12:03):
if New York audiences can feel something for this show
and it's got heart. I mean for those people say, oh,
can you compare it to any other show that you've seen,
the only other show I can really compare it to
would be Come from Away.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
I saw that, Yes, it has heart, So leave you leave.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
The show feeling inspired with more humanity and hope. And
I think my hope for this show is for as
many US people to see it as many veterans, and
I'd love to tour it all over the country. But
this has turnaround's been so quickly, and you can probably
(12:48):
hear it in my voice.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
I'm a little tired.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
We only stopped teking last week and previews last week
and opening on Thursday, and it's.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Not a long time.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
We're here for word of mouth to kick in, and
we don't have the huge budgets to be competing against
the Hamilton's and the Wickeds here on Broadway. So it's
about finding a voice, finding an audience and hopefully word
of mouth or get us through to September seven and
then we can look at the next chapter.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
How would you.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Entice younger people to come see Rolling Thunder?
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Well, younger people were in the audience the other night.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
My daughters have all seen it, and my son, and
they're all in their late twenties.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
I think it's very cool.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Our band in an Australia that performed with this show
every night. If you can think of the Bruce Springsteen
E Street Band, our band was equivalent to that, and
they played with John Farnham for many, many years and
they would, you know, play this music in their sleep.
But they said to me, this show is the coolest
(14:03):
thing we've done. And it is cool. And if you're
into music and you want to come and hear some
performers sing the best versions of these songs, I urge
you to see it. It's and young people are all going, wow,
that's really cool. A little eleven year old boy was
(14:23):
tugging on his mum's skirt on yesterday, saying, I loved it, Mum,
can we come back again?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (14:30):
So, I think it.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Has everything or something for someone out there that's thinking
about seeing a show. What show should I see? It's
it's a great show I'm passionate about.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Sorry, we're out of time. I'm sure you could go
on and on. Rolling Thunder. It is now at the
World the New World Stages off Broadway. And yeah, so
you're going to be hearing our music, the music you
hear on Q one O four point
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Three if you've been listening to Sunsteen sessions on iHeartRadio,
a production of New York's classic rock Q one O
four point three
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Greasy Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I want to introduce you to Rebecca Blake. She is
the producer of what she calls her baby, Rolling Thunder.
It is a musical. It is off Broadway. It has
opened at the New World Stages and we've been giving
away tickets all week long and so we're very excited
(00:32):
about this show. So when you say, Rebecca, this is
your baby, what do you mean.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Well, it started back in twenty fourteen, and I had
always worked in entertainment, marketing of shows, and I had
always worked in you know, with Fleetwood Mac Rolling Stones.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Neil Diamond.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I used to do music as in rock concerts, and
so I've always been a huge fan of music and
my partner and I at the time were looking at doing,
you know, a collection of songs from the late sixties
and seventies, and that's my genre. I was born in
the sixties and it kind of grew from there. We
(01:14):
commissioned to writer Bryce Hallett, who's a journalist from Australia,
and he did some interviews with veterans and it just grew.
And so the stories you hear in the show are
from interviews that we did with veterans and their families
and it's just special.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
It combines this amazing iconic rock songs that we're even
and out of these stories and we have projection and
it's a real insight to that era. I mean, people
come to the show and they don't know what to
expect and they all walk out with wow. If anything,
I learned a whole lot of stuff today about what
(01:54):
went on in the late sixties.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So we're talking about obviously the Vietnam War. Yes, so
tell me some of the stories that Brace uncovered and
what is an Australian journalist doing doing the Vietnam War
where the United States was so heavily involved, and you know,
(02:19):
it just changed the whole generation, myself included Rebecca.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Well, we get asked this question a lot, and we
were in Vietnam with you. We have fought every major
battle with you since World War One. And people don't
know that Australia and New Zealand were in Vietnam War.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
No. No, And it's.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Amazing because we were you know, our soldiers got home
and were treated badly. It was almost like mirrored of
what happened here, happened in Australia and in New Zealand,
and so.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Believable, and that I didn't know that. And you know,
like I said, this is my era, this is part
of my growing up. How many Australians and New Zealanders
did we lose in the Vietnam War?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Look in comparison to what you lost, we lost five
hundred and twenty one soldiers and you know we went
with fifty eight thousand troops. That was Australia compared to you.
Your loss was you know, approximately fifty eight thousand and
nine million people served during that time from the US,
(03:33):
so in comparison, but for us being a small population,
it still.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
Treated with respect in Australia.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
And when I found that we were putting this show together,
the veterans were a big part of it. They contributed
to the landscape, to the photography, the warm l and
Australia and Canberra got behind it. We found that the
veterans really embraced this show from day one, and we're
(04:08):
finding that here that every night since the previews started,
we have vets in the audience and we actually thanked
the veterans at the end of the show, and I
think for you know, you're a very patriotic country compared
to what we are used to in Australia. And I
think in Australia when we did that, everyone was blown away.
And this shows not just for veterans, it's for people
(04:31):
of all ages. We had schools come, we had teachers,
we had grandparents bring grandchildren, you know, we had teenagers
and they all said, wow, this is so cool because of.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
The music factor.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
I mean, this music's universal and it was written by
Americans back when all this turbulence was happening. So that's
a big part of our show. But yes, we participated
in Vietnam and here we are. You know, it's been
a long journey. We've done three or four subsequent tours
(05:12):
in Australia. And you know how I got here was
in twenty three a veteran saw this show and said,
I must I vowed to help you get this to America.
US audiences deserve to see this show. And in Australia
(05:32):
it was very raw, it was very simple, and it
was told from the Australian perspective. So we then adapted
the script from American audiences. The storyline is still the same.
Johnny meets Linda, they fall in love, they get engaged.
One of the characters is a boy from Nebraska, Johnny,
(05:57):
who works on the land and is quite adventurous and
excited to go to Vietnam. Then we have two other
boys in the show that play soldiers once conscripted and
he's still working out why he's there. And then one's
the son of a US marine and he's trying to
make his dad proud. So all in all, we you know,
(06:20):
we found that we we have this show and it's
audiences are loving it, getting immersed in the stories, and
we're just thrilled to be here. You know, I was
only told ten weeks ago we had a theater, so
you can imagine how quickly we had to turn this around.
I'd been coming backwards and forwards to the States for
(06:41):
the last eighteen months. My daughter was a student at
Columbia University, so I had family here, so that was
lovely for me to come. But you know, I have
a great American director, Kenneth Farron, and the musicians. You know,
everyone in the cast is American. Musicians are American, and
(07:03):
it's really special. As you can see, I'm very passionate
about it, and I just love this show. Hence I
call it my baby because it's like that. There's been
times when I've thought maybe I'm too close to it,
but it's been born out of love and I still
(07:23):
am in awe of it every night. I don't ever
get sick of seeing it night after night. I'm speaking
with Rebecca Blake. She is the producer of Rolling Thunder.
It is a musical off Broadway.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
It is now open and the closing date is September seventh,
but of course we're hoping it goes on far longer.
It's at the New World Stages. You have a component,
don't you, where there are to try to get more
veterans to see Rolling Thunder.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Well, We've partnered with American Legion and a percentage of
our merchandise goes back to American Legion. We want as
many veterans to see this show. I mean, what we
found astonishing was in Australia, and I'm sure it's going
to be the same here. A lot of vets can't
talk about their experiences. They all suffer from PTSD and
(08:20):
they come to the show and they hug me, they
thanked me. They're eternally grateful for this show. It seems
to have, you know, their wives come up to me
and say, my husband hasn't been able to talk about
this experience and thank you, thank you for bringing this
to the stage. And it's also an era we don't
(08:41):
want to forget. It's in our curriculum in Australia. You know,
students that are the age of sixteen seventeen have to
learn about all the wars that we participated in. And
I'm sure that's the same here. But you know, nineteen
sixty eight for the US was a very turbulent time
(09:03):
and we cover a little bit of that in this show.
We don't want it, you know, we try not to
get too political, but we do touch on Martin Luther
King's assassination, Bobby Kennedy's assassination, LBJ, you know, we Nixon,
you know, Walter kohnkright, They're they're all featured in this show,
and I think for a lot of people that see
(09:25):
it's it's a little maybe down memory lane for them.
And you know, there are times in the show when
it does become sad, but then by the end of
the show, everyone's on their feet dancing. I always describe
it as joyous and this era was when you think back,
(09:49):
we always say, out of this ugliness, this music of
beauty appeared and we featured twenty iconic songs in it.
From Killing Me Softly helped me make it through the night,
Magic carpet ride, people get ready, all along the watchtower.
It just it's, you know, a bridge over troubled water.
(10:11):
It's amazing the songbook that we've got in the show.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
You know, you had such a wealth of music to
pick from, so how did you choose.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Well, all the music has strategically been chosen to be
placed in the story, so every song you hear in
this story has a meaning. Look in Australia, part of
my journey with this show was getting the rights to
the music, and that would take me two years sometimes
because every time I did the show, I'd have to
(10:43):
go for the rights again. Here, I haven't had to
do that, And you're right, there is such a wealth
of music that we can choose from. There were a
few songs we couldn't get, which was sad for me,
but then we replaced them songs from Bob Dylan, hard
Rein's going to fall the stones give me shelter. So
(11:06):
at the end of the day, you're right. We can
always replace the songs if you know. We had to,
and we had to replace about three coming here this time,
but they all have a place in the storyline, so
it's great.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
What are your hopes for Rolling Thunder moving forward? I mean,
I know you're in the thick of it. You just
opened and you know you're you're on It's running at
least through September seventh, So what are your hopes for
Rolling Thunder?
Speaker 3 (11:40):
I'd like to take it around America and do a
national tour. I think you know, this show has always
been ground roots. You know, we came to New York
because it became available, but we know that we're probably
never going to recoup in New York. But it's a
good place. It's a stepping stone for this show because
(12:03):
if New York audiences can feel something for this show
and it's got heart. I mean for those people say, oh,
can you compare it to any other show that you've seen,
the only other show I can really compare it to
would be Come from Away.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
I saw that, Yes, it has heart, So leave you leave.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
The show feeling inspired with more humanity and hope. And
I think my hope for this show is for as
many US people to see it as many veterans, and
I'd love to tour it all over the country. But
this has turnaround's been so quickly, and you can probably
(12:48):
hear it in my voice.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
I'm a little tired.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
We only stopped teking last week and previews last week
and opening on Thursday, and it's.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Not a long time.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
We're here for word of mouth to kick in, and
we don't have the huge budgets to be competing against
the Hamilton's and the Wickeds here on Broadway. So it's
about finding a voice, finding an audience and hopefully word
of mouth or get us through to September seven and
then we can look at the next chapter.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
How would you.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Entice younger people to come see Rolling Thunder?
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Well, younger people were in the audience the other night.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
My daughters have all seen it, and my son, and
they're all in their late twenties.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
I think it's very cool.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Our band in an Australia that performed with this show
every night. If you can think of the Bruce Springsteen
E Street Band, our band was equivalent to that, and
they played with John Farnham for many, many years and
they would, you know, play this music in their sleep.
But they said to me, this show is the coolest
(14:03):
thing we've done. And it is cool. And if you're
into music and you want to come and hear some
performers sing the best versions of these songs, I urge
you to see it. It's and young people are all going, wow,
that's really cool. A little eleven year old boy was
(14:23):
tugging on his mum's skirt on yesterday, saying, I loved it, Mum,
can we come back again?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (14:30):
So, I think it.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Has everything or something for someone out there that's thinking
about seeing a show. What show should I see? It's
it's a great show I'm passionate about.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Sorry, we're out of time. I'm sure you could go
on and on. Rolling Thunder. It is now at the
World the New World Stages off Broadway. And yeah, so
you're going to be hearing our music, the music you
hear on Q one O four point
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Three if you've been listening to Sunsteen sessions on iHeartRadio,
a production of New York's classic rock Q one O
four point three
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