BROADWAY NATION

This is the third and final part of my conversation with Ben Francis whose amazingly compelling new book is titled Careful the Spell You Cast — How Stephen Sondheim Extended the Range of the American Musical. Just like the book, our discussion has been structured around Sondheim’s collaborators. In this episode we discuss his work with George Furth, John Weidman, Hugh Wheeler & James Lapine. And,...

This is the second part of my conversation with author Ben Francis regarding his very compelling new book: Careful the Spell You Cast — How Stephen Sondheim Extended the Range of the American Musical. This week Ben and I focus on three of Sondheim's key collaborators — Harold Prince, Burt Shevelove, and James Goldman. If you missed last weeks episode you may want to catch up with that one before l...

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 tha...

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 signi...

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 superstar...

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 (bo...

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 dra...

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...

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 th...

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 whe...

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 Squar...

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 a...

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 — a...

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...

 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...

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...

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 i...

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 pla...

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,...

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 fasc...

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 W...

My guest again today is director Sheldon Epps, and this is the third and final part of our recent conversation about his long and successful career as he relates it in his new book: My Own Directions — A Black Man’s Journey in the American Theatre. If you missed the previous episodes it may be helpful to listen to those before joining us for this one. In 1997 when Sheldon was appointed the Artisti...

This is the second part of my conversation with director Sheldon Epps whose very engaging new book is titled: My Own Directions — A Black Man’s Journey in the American Theatre. This week we follow Epps’ journey as it takes him from New York to California, first to the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego to his appointment as Artistic Director of the Pasadena Playhouse which makes him the first black pe...

My guest today is Sheldon Epps whose new book is titled, My Own Directions — A Black Man’s Journey in the American Theatre. There he shares the story of his long and successful career during which he has often been “the first”, “one of the few”, or even “the only” person of color to reach various levels of achievement in the world of theater.  At the center of the book are the two decades Epps ser...

Today’s episode is the second half of my conversation with JESSE GREEN, author of the New York Times best seller SHY: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers — undoubtably the most talked about theater book in years! Last week Jesse shared with us how Mary Rodgers selected him to tell her remarkable story — from her childhood growing up surrounded by the brightest lights of the Golden Age...