BROADWAY NATION

Never fear! Richard Schoch will return soon for the third and fourth segments of our conversation regarding his recent book, How Sondheim Can Change Your Life. In the meantime, I am excited to share with you the first of what I anticipate will become an occasional new series, which I am calling IN SEARCH OF LOST BROADWAY. And in this episode, my guest ALBERT EVANS and I will try to rediscover the...

My guest again this week is Richard Schoch, author of the much-acclaimed book, How Sondheim Can Change Your Life. Last week, Richard took us deep inside the inner workings of both Gypsy and Company. In this episode, through his insightful analysis of the musicals Follies and A Little Night Music, and the fascinating characters who inhabit them, Schoch illuminates Sondheim’s incredible genius for p...

Join author David Armstrong for a lively conversation hosted by Alan Seales of The Theatre Podcast celebrating the release of Armstrong's new book, Broadway Nation—How Immigrant, Jewish, Queer and Black Artists Invented the Broadway Musical. With co-host Michelle Simone Miller host of the podcast Mentors On the Mic. At this virtual book launch party you will have the opportunity to meet David Arms...

After a brief summer break, I am thrilled to be back with an all-new episode of Broadway Nation! My guest this week is RICHARD SCHOCH, author of the recent and much-acclaimed book, HOW SONDHEIM CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Just when you thought there might be nothing left to say about the musicals of Stephen Sondheim, Schoch's engaging book opens up a new treasure trove of fascinating analysis and insigh...

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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 Vaudevill...

In this episode Albert Evans and I explore the origins of Broadway’s “Nostalgia Craze of the 1970s” — where it came from, and what artistic, social and cultural forces came together to spark this unlikely phenomenon.  We trace its origins in the counterculture youth rebellion of the 1960s, the rediscovery of films from the 1930s and 40s on television, and the popularization of gay camp culture via...

This episode is adapted from a section of my new upcoming book, Broadway Nation — How Immigrant, Jewish, Queer, and Black Artists Invented the Broadway Musical, which will be released on July 24 (and can be preordered now everywhere books are sold.) In 1919, two gifted young Queer theater artists — Hassard Short and John Murray Anderson —both made their Broadway directing debuts and quickly establ...

This week’s episode of Broadway Nation is the second half of my conversation with author Ron Fassler, whose latest book is titled The Show Goes On — Broadway Hirings, Firings, and Replacements. Among the outstanding Broadway performers and creatives who are at the center Ron’s fascinating stories include Abe Burrows, Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Comden & Green, Cynthia Erivo, Fantasia, Frank L...

My guest is author Ron Fassler, whose latest book is titled The Show Goes On — Broadway Hirings, Firings, and Replacements, a fascinating collection of insider theater stories that range from as far back as the 1930s and go right up to today. The performers and creatives referenced in this episode include Andrea McArdle, Ann Miller, Anne Bancroft, Barbra Streisand, Cameron MacIntosh, Carol Burnett...

I, along with the rest of the musical theater world, was saddened to learn that composer CHARLES STROUSE, one of the last of the great creators from the Golden Age of Broadway had passed away last week at the age of 96. Of course, Strouse and his three Tony Award-winning “Best Musicals": Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, and Annie — have been discussed frequently on this podcast. So over the weekend, I du...

It's hard for me to believe that I launched this podcast exactly five years ago this week, and even harder for me to comprehend that, to date, more than 279,000 people, from nearly every country in the world, have listened to at least one, and in many cases all, of the 175 episodes! So, today it seemed fitting to rerelease the episode that started it all — the very first episode of Broadway Nation...

This is the third and final segment of my conversation with Michael Owen, author of the recent book,  Ira Gershwin — A Life in Words. On this episode, Michael and I focus on the period of Ira Gershwin’s career following the death of his brother George, during which he had success on Broadway and in Hollywood with composers such as Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern, Arthur Schwartz, and Harold Arlen, and sho...

This is the second episode of my three-part conversation with author, historian, researcher, and archivist, Michael Owen, whose recent book,  Ira Gershwin — A Life in Words, is the first full-length biography devoted to that outstanding artist who penned the words for many of the greatest songs of the 20th Century. If you missed part one, you may want to catch up with that before listening to this...

My guest today is Michael Owen, whose recent book Ira Gershwin—A Life in Words is the first full-length biography devoted to the other Gershwin. In this book, Owen at last brings Ira Gershwin out from behind the long shadow cast by his younger and more famous brother, George. Drawing on extensive archival research, Owen often uses Ira’s own words to create a captivating portrait of a shy and retir...

This is the second half of this week's Encore presentation of my conversation with Tony-award-winning lighting designer Ken Billington. Last week, Ken received rave reviews for his lighting design of the new Broadway musical SMASH, which amazingly is his 108th Broadway production. So, I thought it was an ideal time to revisit this fascinating conversation about the history of lighting design on Br...

This is a special encore episode of my 2022 interview with Tony-award-winning lighting designer Ken Billington. This past week, Ken received rave reviews for his lighting design of the new Broadway musical SMASH, which amazingly is his 108th Broadway production. So, I thought it was an ideal time to revisit this fascinating conversation about the history of lighting design on Broadway and Ken’s ow...

Since announcing last week that Broadway Nation has teamed up with Like Minds Travel to create a series of unique Broadway and Broadway history-related travel experiences specially designed for fans of this podcast, I have been receiving a number of questions, so I thought I createdd this mini bonus episode to answer them. As you probably know by now, we are kicking off this initiative with a whir...

My guest this week is the three-time Tony award-winning Broadway orchestrator Doug Besterman, whose 31 Broadway musicals include The Producers, Fosse, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and his very first show, the 1991 revival of Damn Yankees, to name only a few. During this current Broadway season, Besterman will achieve something unheard of in his field: he will have three big musicals — Death Becomes H...

This is thee second part of my conversation with author Joshua Rosenblum about his new book CLOSER THAN EVER — THE UNIQUE SIX-DECADE SONGWRITING PARTNERSHIP of RICHARD MALTBY, JR, and DAVID SHIRE. We dicuss Maltby's work on the musicals Ain't Misbehavin', Fosse, Song And Dance, Miss Saigon, and The Pirate Queen, and the Maltby/Shire shows, Baby, Closer Than Ever, BIG, and Waterfall. Travel to NYC...

My guest today is Joshua Rosenblum, author of Closer than Ever — The Unique Six-Decade Songwriting Partnership of Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire. This remarkable new book chronicles the sixty-six-year (and counting) partnership of two of the most gifted songwriters of our time and provides us with full behind-the-scenes accounts of their musicals interspersed with deep-dive analyses of some o...

You may not know Trude Rittmann's name, but you have 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 leas...

 On this episode, I have a big announcement, so I asked my buddy, friend, colleague, and Broadway Nation’s favorite co-host and guest host, ALBERT EVANS, to join me today to turn the tables on me and ask me the questions rather than me being the interviewer. As you may have guessed from the episode title, the announcement is that I have a book coming out called BROADWAY NATION (sound familiar?) an...

 On this episode, Albert Evans returns to Broadway Nation to discuss a topic we don't often broach on this podcast: Movie Musicals. Of course, movie musicals go hand in glove with Broadway musicals and many film musicals originated as Broadway musicals including several we talk about here because our principal topic is Movie Musicals that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Coming up this week...

My guest again this week is Christopher S. Connelly, author of the fascinating new book HELEN MORGAN — THE ORIGINAL TORCH SINGER AND ZIEGFELD'S LAST STAR. On this episode, Christopher and I look at Helen Morgan's life and career during the 1930s, both in Hollywood and on Broadway. And we delve a bit into her personal story, including the love of her life and her several marriages. we end by lookin...