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PODCAST

BROADWAY NATION

Broadway Podcast Network

A lively and opinionated cultural history of the Broadway Musical that tells the extraordinary story of how Immigrants, Jews, Queers, African-Americans and other outcasts invented the Broadway Musical, and how they changed America in the process.In Season One, host David Armstrong traces the evolution of American Musical Theater from its birth at the dawn of the 20th Century, through its mid-century “Golden Age”, and right up to its current 21st Century renaissance; and also explore how musicals

history performing arts

All Episodes

36:45

Episode 111: Careful The Spell You Cast — How Stephen...

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/06/29

My guest today is Ben Francis, author of a very compelling new book titled Careful the Spell You Cast — How Stephen Sondheim Extended the Range of the American Musical. Sondheim is without a doubt one of the most studied, examined, and analyzed Broadway creators of all time. In fact, we have done quite a bit of that right here on Broadway Nation. However, as you will hear, Ben Francis contends that in spite of all of that investigation, Sondheim continues to be very misunderstood. He is often

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29:29

Special Encore Episode: "I Am What I Am" — Gay...

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/06/22

This is a special Encore Episode in celebration of PRIDE month. The Stonewall Rebellion in 1969 thrust the issue of Gay Rights into the mainstream and as a result, during the 1970s queer people became “out, loud, and proud” in significant numbers. In fact, all of the progressive and disruptive social movements of the 1960s & 70s — Civil Rights, Women’s Liberation, Black Power, Anti-War — had significant impacts on Broadway and were vibrantly reflected back into the culture by the hit musicals of the

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35:09

Encore Episode: Cole Porter & The Queers Who Invented...

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/06/15

This is a special Pride Month encore of one of Broadway Nation's earliest episodes! From the very beginning the Broadway Musical has to a very large degree been a Queer creation. In this episode David Armstrong shares the fascinating stories of early queer creators including producing and life partners Charles Frohman & Charles Dillingham; the first great gay director Hassard Short; drag superstars Julian Eltinge & Bert Savoy; the "Pansy Craze" of the 1930s; and especially the delightful, delicious,

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29:14

Episode 110: THE SHAPE OF A MUSICAL

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/06/08

This is the second half of my conversation with Rebecca Applin Warner, who is the author of a new book: The Musical Theatre Composer As Dramatist — A Handbook For Collaboration. Last time Rebecca shared some of the fascinating concepts and techniques that can be found in her book in regard to breaking down and analyzing the components of a musical, including its principal and supporting themes (both dramatic and musical), as well as what she calls “the shape” of the musical overall, and in its

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37:22

Episode 109: IT'S ALL ABOUT STORYTELLING!

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/06/01

My guest this week is author Rebecca Applin Warner, whose new book is titled The Musical Theatre Composer As Dramatist — A Handbook For Collaboration. As frequent listeners to this podcast have no doubt figured out by now, my primary interest in musical theater is in the storytelling — especially how the bookwriter, composer, lyricist, choreographer, director and designers all come together to dramatize that a musical’s story and characters, and how they bring that first to the page, and then to the

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29:12

Encore Episode: Trude Rittmann & The Women Who...

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/05/25

This is a Special Encore release of one of my personal favorite episodes! You may not know the name, Trude Rittmann, but you have certainly heard her music. During the "Golden Age of Broadway" (and beyond) she composed music for 33 Broadway musicals including Carousel, Brigadoon, South Pacific, Fininan’s Rainbow, The King and I, My Fair Lady, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Peter Pan, The Sound of Music, and Camelot. In this episode Albert Evans and I tell the story of one of the least known, but most

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43:53

Episode 108: MY FRIEND SANDY, part 2

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/05/18

This is the second half of my recent conversation with author Deborah Phillips whose fascinating new book is titled AND THIS IS MY FRIEND SANDY — SANDY WILSON’S THE BOY FRIEND, LONDON THEATRE AND GAY CULTURE. If you missed the previous episode you may want to catch up with that before listening to this one. The Boyfriend is one of the most popular and successful British musicals of all time. On the previous episode Deborah Phillips shared with us how its creator Sandy Wilson grew up as a musical

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47:21

Episode 107: Sandy Wilson's THE BOYFRIEND, London...

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/05/11

My guest this week is author Deborah Phillips whose new book is titled: AND THIS IS MY FRIEND SANDY — SANDY WILSON’S THE BOY FRIEND, LONDON THEATRE AND GAY CULTURE. Sandy Wilson's The Boyfriend — for which he wrote the book, music, & lyrics — is one of the most successful British musicals of all time. It emerged in 1952 out of London’s secretive but vibrant gay theatrical subculture, at a time when you could be sent to prison for being homosexual. By the following year both The Boyfriend and Sandy

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38:44

Encore Episode: Celebrating 63 Years of THE FANTASTICKS

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/05/04

This is a special Encore episode of Broadway Nation in celebration of the 63rd Anniversary of the Off-Broadway musical phenomenon, The Fantasticks. That show opened at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village on May 3, 1960, and went on to play there for an incredible 42 years closing in January of 2002. Then four years later the show reopened at the Snapple Theater Center in Times Square where is ran another 11 years. As you will hear, even though this show was performed off-Broadway, it

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46:23

Episode 106; ITAMAR MOSES — From THE BAND"S VISIT to...

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/04/27

My guest this week is playwright Itamar Moses, winner of the 2018 Tony Award for “Best Book of a Musical” for his beautiful work on the Tony Award winning “Best Musical”, The Band’s Visit. His other theater work includes the plays Bach at Leipzig, The Four Of Us, Completeness, and The Whistleblower, and the musicals Nobody Loves You, and The Fortress of Solitude. He has also written for several acclaimed television series including Boardwalk Empire and The Affair. His current project, and the main

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34:28

Episode 105: Two Degrees of George Abbott, The Abbott...

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/04/20

This is the second half of my conversation with Thomas Hischak whose new book is titled The Abbott Touch — Pal Joey, Damn Yankees and the Theatre of George Abbott. If you missed part one, you may want to catch up with the previous episode before listening to this one. George Abbott was a major force in the American Theater for more than 80 years. As an actor, director, playwright, and producer — and often several of those at the same time — he played a significant role in the creation of well over

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36:01

Episode 104: The Abbott Touch — The Theatre of George...

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/04/13

My guest this week is author Thomas Hischak whose new book is titled: The Abbott Touch — Pal Joey, Damn Yankees and the theatre of George Abbott. For more than 60 years — from 1913 to 1994 — George Abbott was a major force on Broadway. As an actor, director, playwright, bookwriter, play doctor, and producer he applied his famous "touch" to more than 100 plays and musicals from Rodgers & Hart’s On Your Toes to Stephen Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Remarkably, this is the

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49:06

Episode 103: More Scandalous Gertrude Hoffmann

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/04/06

My guest again this week is Sunny Stalter-Pace whose fascinating new book is titled: Imitation Artist — Gertrude Hoffmann’s Life in Vaudeville and Dance. Choreographer, producer, director, and dancing star, Gertrude Hoffmann was a close colleague and key collaborator with neatly all the legendary figures of early Broadway including Florenz Ziegfeld, Oscar Hammerstein I, the Shubert Brothers, and George M. Cohan. But, unfortunately Gertrude Hoffmann has been left out of most of the history books,

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51:19

Episode 102: The Scandalous Life & Career of...

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/03/30

My guest this week is Sunny Stalter-Pace whose wonderful new book is titled: Imitation Artist — Gertrude Hoffmann’s Life in Vaudeville and Dance. And I am happy to say that this book covers her life on Broadway as well. As you will hear Gertrude Hoffmann is another of those dynamic women who played key roles in the invention of the Broadway Musical but unfortunately have mostly fallen out of the history books, and are nearly forgotten today. Not only was she a scandalous and transgressive

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38:36

Episode 101: Round In Circles — The Story of Rodgers...

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/03/23

This is the third and final part of my conversation with author, Barry Kester whose new book is titled, Round In Circles — The Story of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s CAROUSEL. (If you missed either of the previous two episodes you may want to catch up with those before listening to this one. ) First we focus on Carousel’s most famous song, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and explore the extraordinary impact it’s had on the world. Then Barry and I discuss the movie version of Carousel, including why many people

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72:11

Episode 100: WHO'S THE GREATEST STAR?

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/03/16

Welcome to the 100th episode of Broadway Nation! To celebrate I invited Albert Evans to join me to discuss, debate, and decide once and for all who is the Greatest Broadway Musical Star Of All Time! As you will hear, we had a lot of fun with this one, and I have no doubt it will spark a lot of comments, conversation, and controversy! And we look forward to hearing from you. (And if you are wondering what happened to the third part of my conversation with Barry Kester regarding his book Round In

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29:31

Episode 99: ROUND IN CIRCLES, part 2

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/03/09

This is the second part of my conversation with author Barry Kester whose fascinating new book is titled: Round In Circles — The Story of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s CAROUSEL. Last week we focused on the three people most responsible for the creation of CAROUSEL — Oscar Hammerstein, Richard Rodgers, and the dynamic producer Theresa Helburn, whose vision and obsession it was to turn Ferenc Molnar’s play Liliom into a musical. This week Barry takes us behind the scenes of CAROUSEL’s rehearsal period and

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45:46

Episode 98: Round In Circles — The Story of Rodgers &...

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/03/02

My guest on Broadway Nation this week is Barry Kester, author of the fascinating new book: Round In Circles — The Story of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s CAROUSEL. I thought I knew a lot about Carousel — and in fact Albert Evans and I have previously devoted several previous episodes to that show and its truly groundbreaking innovations. However, we both found this book to be filled with new information, new discoveries, and new insights. Based on his exemplary research, Barry Kester takes us deep

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46:46

Special Bonus Encore Episode: When Broadway Was...

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/02/26

This is a special bonus Encore episode of Broadway Nation in celebration of the rerelease of the book formerly known as Footnotes and now retitled When Broadway Was Black — The Triumphant Story of The All Black Musical That Changed The World. In the first segment you will hear part of my very recent conversation with author Caseen Gains all about this new retitled and updated version of his fascinating history of the 1921 musical Shuffle Along! Then you’ll hear the second part of my original

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40:39

Encore Episode: When Broadway Was Black!

BROADWAY NATION ·

2023/02/23

This is a special Encore edition of Broadway Nation. In the fall of 2021, I devoted two episodes to the remarkable book Footnotes by Caseen Gaines which was published to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the landmark musical Shuffle Along. Now that book has just been rereleased in paperback and retitled, When Broadway Was Black — The Triumphant Story of The All Black Musical That Changed The World. So, this seemed like the perfect time to rerelease those episodes, and just like Cassen has done

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