This week’s episode is a little different. I recorded this just five days after it was announced that Stephen Sondheim had died and as it happened my friend, colleague and frequent co-host and contributor to Broadway Nation, Albert Evans, was spending the Thanksgiving weekend with me, and so we were together when this news began to break and during the incredible reaction and response this loss over the days that followed. The coverage of Sondheim’s life and legacy in both traditional and social...
Dec 02, 2021•39 min•Season 2Ep. 48
This is the second part of my recent conversation with Irene Sankoff & David Hein -- the dynamic writing team and married couple that created the international smash hit musical Come From Away. Five productions of Come From Away have recently reopened around the world: Broadway, Toronto, London, Sydney and on tour across America. A new Dutch production has just opened, as well, and a live filmed version of the show is streaming on Apple TV+. On the previous episode Irene and David related ho...
Nov 25, 2021•37 min•Season 2Ep. 47
My guests today are Irene Sankoff & David Hein – the dynamic writing team and married couple that created the giant international smash hit musical Come From Away. Five productions of Come From Away have recently reopened around the world: Broadway, Toronto, London, Sydney and on tour across America. A live filmed version of the show is also streaming on Apple TV+. Irene and David won the 2019 Olivier Award and were nominated for the 2018 Grammy Award and the 2017 Tony Award for their book a...
Nov 18, 2021•39 min•Season 2Ep. 46
This episode continues my conversation with author Stacy Wolf about her most recent book: Beyond Broadway: The Pleasure And Promise of Musical Theater Across America , where she relates her cross-country journey from Maine to California during which she visited grade schools, middle schools, high schools, summer camps, festivals, and community theater in cities and towns, large and very small, and along the way discovered that the Broadway musical is alive and thriving! Beyond Broadway also expl...
Nov 11, 2021•30 min•Season 2Ep. 45
I recently had the pleasure of to chatting with author Stacy Wolf about her most recent book entitled, Beyond Broadway: The Pleasure And Promise of Musical Theater Across America. Stacy is a Professor of Theater at Princeton University and the Director of their Program in Music Theater. She is also a leading scholar of musical theater, and her other acclaimed books include Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical, A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Mus...
Nov 04, 2021•50 min•Season 2Ep. 44
My guest today is theatrical animal trainer Bill Berloni. Beginning with the original production of ANNIE in 1977, Bill has provided and trained animals of all species and sizes for 27 Broadway musicals and plays, as well as for countless Off-Broadway shows, National Tours, regional theaters, movies, television shows, commercials and the NYC Ballet – and he found almost all of those animal actors in shelters, humane societies and rescue leagues. His awards include a 2011 Tony Honor for “Excellen...
Oct 28, 2021•49 min•Season 2Ep. 43
This is the final part of my conversation with Broadway actor, singer, dancer, director and choreographer Lee Roy Reams, at least for now. I am sure I will have Lee Roy back for another discussion in the not so distant future. There is no end to the amazing insights and classic show-biz stories that he has locked in his memories. If you missed the first two parts you may want to listen to those episodes first. We begin this episode with Lee Roy sharing his experience playing "Cornelius Hackle" i...
Oct 21, 2021•31 min•Season 2Ep. 42
This is the second part of my conversation with Broadway actor, singer, dancer, director and choreographer Lee Roy Reams whose nine Broadway musicals span from Sweet Charity in 1966 to The Producers in 1996, and as you will hear – he is still going strong! If you missed Part 1 you may want to listen to that episode first. We left off there with Lee Roy leaving his job as a dancer on the Carol Burnett Show in Hollywood and heading back to NYC because he was determined to move out of the chorus an...
Oct 14, 2021•34 min•Season 2Ep. 41
I recently had the delightful opportunity to chat with beloved Broadway actor, singer, dancer, director and choreographer Lee Roy Reams whose nine Broadway musicals span from Sweet Charity in 1966 to The Producers in 1996, and he is still going strong having recently celebrated his 79th birthday with performances at 54 Below and The York Theatre Company! Our conversation ranges from his childhood dancing schools in his hometown of Covington, Kentucky, to college in Cincinnati, to his dancing wit...
Oct 07, 2021•39 min•Season 2Ep. 40
During an incredible Broadway career that stretched from 1953 to 1998, composer Cy Coleman created the music for 12 Broadway musicals. Unlike most Broadway composers, however, he was never part of an ongoing songwriting team but instead worked with seven very talented but very different collaborators. My guest today is one of those esteemed lyricists -- David Zippel who partnered with Cy Coleman on the score for the 1990 Tony Award winning "Best Musical", City Of Angels the hit musical that alto...
Sep 30, 2021•49 min•Season 2Ep. 39
This week I continue my conversation with author Cassen Gaines whose fascinating new book Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way tells the story of how in 1921 four talented and determined young black vaudevillians -- Noble Sissle, Eubie Blake, Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles -- against incredible odds, teamed up to produce a runaway Broadway hit that ushered in a vibrant decade of Black Musicals on Broadway. If you missed the first episode of this series you ...
Sep 23, 2021•33 min•Season 2Ep. 38
This year marks the 100th Anniversary of Shuffle Along! The groundbreaking musical that kicked off a decade of vibrant black musical theatre on Broadway which included more than a dozen shows created by black songwriters, black bookwriters, black producers, black directors and choreographers -- and these shows brought hundreds of black actors, singers, dancers, and musicians to Broadway. This landmark event is being celebrated with the release of two wonderful new books – including the first ful...
Sep 16, 2021•31 min•Season 2Ep. 36
Author Rick Pender takes us inside the creation of The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia. Rick Pender is a longtime member and former chair of the American Theater Critics Association. He first began reviewing theater in 1985 for a public radio station he managed at Northern Kentucky University. He later became the theater critic for CityBeat – Cincinnati’s alternative weekly newspaper -- and eventually became its arts and culture editor. He also often contributed articles to The Sondheim Review, a ...
Sep 09, 2021•43 min•Season 2Ep. 36
Why are the great Musicals so unforgettable? Why do musicals have so much power and impact? How is it that they are able to live in our hearts and memories for a lifetime? Musicals are experiences that get embedded in our psyche. We remember them forever -- vividly and in often in great and specific detail. And they get embedded in our emotional and physical memory as well. Our bodies and nervous systems recall how we felt when we experienced them years, even lifetimes later. In this Season One ...
Jan 22, 2021•31 min•Season 1Ep. 35
Over the past two episode we’ve explored the principal themes that underly the greatest number of Broadway Musicals. Two weeks ago we looked at “Transgressive Women”, last week it was “Equity, Justice and Inclusion”, and today we explore “Community”. The Musical theater is a very effective form for dramatizing entire communities of people – and often the community itself becomes a major character in the drama. Because of this natural ability, dozens of Broadway musicals - including many of the m...
Jan 14, 2021•39 min•Season 1Ep. 34
At the beginning of each episode of this podcast I state that the Broadway Musical was invented by various marginalized and disenfranchised people, and that in the process of creating it, they transformed American culture as well. This is the second of several episodes in which I demonstrate exactly why I think that is true, and how it happened. When we consider the people who created the musical it certainly should not be surprising that there are at least 30 popular and successful Broadway mus...
Jan 07, 2021•38 min•Season 1Ep. 33
This is the second of two special holiday bonus episodes of Broadway Nation. Just like the first, this is an audio version of a Broadway Nation Live! performance that was given in December of 2019 at the Vashon Center For The Performing Arts on Vashon Island, WA. If you prefer to watch a video of this performance you can stream it on their website at: vashoncenterforthearts.org In Part One we looked at how the Jewish-Russian immigrant songwriter, Irving Berlin -- in addition to being one of the ...
Dec 30, 2020•42 min
This special holiday bonus episode of Broadway Nation is an audio version of a Broadway Nation Live! performance that was presented in December of 2019 at the Vashon Center For The Performing Arts on Vashon Island in Washington State. If you would prefer to watch a video of this performance you can stream it on their website at: vashoncenterforthearts.org Several previous episodes of Broadway Nation have explored the crucial role that the Jewish-Russian immigrant songwriter, Irving Berlin, playe...
Dec 24, 2020•33 min
This is the first of three episodes highlighting the principal themes of the Broadway Musical. Today I look at the single most ubiquitous and pervasive theme: “Transgressive Women”. For more than 100 years an overwhelming majority of musicals have featured transgressive female characters who break the rules, and refuse to follow the path that society has set out for them. And more often than not they are the protagonist, or co-protagonist, of the story. However, for some reason musicals are not ...
Dec 16, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 32
In today’s episode I focus on the Broadway Musicals of the 21st Century. Perhaps surprisingly, the current generation of Broadway creators has re-embraced and reinvigorated both the “Musical Comedy” and the “Musical Play” in ways that I think would make Rodgers & Hammerstein very proud. At the same time they have introduced something sort of new – the “Jukebox Musical”. In the process, and with a major assist from the Walt Disney Company, the Broadway Musical has achieved new heights of pros...
Dec 09, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 31
In the second half of my interview with NY Post columnist Michael Riedel about his new book, Singular Sensation – The Triumph of Broadway we continue the story of the Broadway Musical as it moved from the final decade of the 20th Century into the new millennium. Last week’s episode ended with our discussion of the musical Crazy For You and the 1992 revival of Guys & Dolls, two productions that laid the seeds of what soon became a major trend on Broadway – the return of the Musical Comedy. To...
Dec 02, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 30
I recently had a chance to interview NY Post columnist Michael Riedel about his new book, Singular Sensation, and that conversation proved to be the perfect vehicle to tell the story of the Broadway Musical during the final decade of the 20th Century. Michael not only had covered the events and personalities of this period first-hand in his newspaper columns during 1990s -- for the book he also reached out and interviewed more than 100 key people -- from Andrew Llyod Webber to Patti Lupone -- so...
Nov 25, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 29
In this episode I explore what is often called “The British Invasion of Broadway” – a ten-year period during which it seemed that writers, directors, designers, producers and even performers from the UK had sailed in, taken over Broadway, and commandeered America’s signature art form – the Musical. At the center of this revolution was trio of spectacular and bombastic “Mega Musicals” that dominated Broadway during the 1990s – Les Miserables, Phantom Of The Opera, and Miss Saigon. All of them wer...
Nov 18, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 28
The progressive and disruptive social movements of the 1960s and 70s had a huge impact on the Broadway Musical and were reflected back into the culture by them. These include the Civil Rights movement, Women’s Liberation, Black Power, and the Gay Liberation Movement. The Stonewall Rebellion in 1969 brought gay issues into the mainstream and during the 1970s LGBTQ+ people would become “out, loud, and proud” in significant numbers. Of course, it makes sense that this new visibility and feeling of ...
Nov 11, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 27
In this episode I explore the history of what is called the “Concept Musical”, including its key creators: Harold Prince, Stephen Sondheim, Kander & Ebb, Bob Fosse, Michael Bennett and their game changing musicals Cabaret, Company, Follies, A Chorus Line, Chicago, Cats, and Dreamgirls. The central figure in the emergence of the Concept Musical is Harold Prince. In a career that lasted more than 60 years, Prince produced and/or directed more than 40 Broadway shows, and in the process received...
Nov 04, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Over the last three episodes I charted the rise of the Rock Musical – from HAIR to EVITA, - as well as the very unlikely “Nostalgia Craze” that swept Broadway and America during the 1970’s. 1970s Broadway experienced another blast from the past with the return of the Black Musical. More than a dozen hit black musicals opened during the decade, and three of them won the Tony Award for BEST MUSICAL. About half of these were new, original musical plays – mostly adaptations of popular plays or novel...
Oct 28, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 25
In this episode I continue my review of Broadway’s Nostalgia Craze of the 1970s and beyond. Many of the musicals that emerged in the late 60s and very early 70s were also influenced by the incipient Nostalgia Craze, even if overall their shows were decidedly modern. HAIR, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Applause all included musical sequences that recalled the Vaudeville era and Silver Age of Broadway. So nostalgia was in the air, and then No, No, Nanette sent it into ...
Oct 21, 2020•26 min•Season 1Ep. 24
In the last episode I outlined how a new wave of brash young songwriters swept aside the Golden Age and ushered in Broadway’s Modern Era with shows such as Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell and Two Gentleman of Verona. But surprisingly, in the midst of this ongoing triumph and ascendance of the Rock Musical, the biggest hit of 1971 was a revival of the Silver Age musical comedy, NO, NO, NANETTE. That’s right the Vincent Youmans musical that has introduced the songs “Tea For Two” and “I Want...
Oct 14, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Although nobody knew it at the time, in April of 1968 “The Golden Age of Broadway” came to an abrupt end on the opening night of the “tribal rock musical” HAIR, which took America by storm and created a shocking jump cut into what I call “The Modern Era" of the Broadway Musical. In this episode I share the story of the emergence and rise of the so called “Rock Musical”. To many HAIR, and the "Rock Musical", seemed like a total betrayal of the values, craftsmanship and traditions of Broadway. How...
Oct 07, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 22
As the 1950’s came to a close, Broadway Musicals were at the very center of American culture. Then in 1960, as if on cue, two immensely popular shows – The Fantasticks, and Bye, Bye Birdie – kick off the decade by foreshadowing several major changes in American culture that will dramatically affect the Broadway Musical, and by the end of the decade, leave its very future in doubt. The brilliant creators profiled in this episode include Schmidt & Jones, Strouse & Adams, Michael Stewart, G...
Sep 30, 2020•38 min•Season 1Ep. 21
