Episódios
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This is the third and final segment of my recent conversation with author Laurie Winer regarding her book Oscar Hammerstein II and the Invention of The Musical, recently released in paperback.
Today our discussion centers on the second half of Hammerstein’s remarkable partnership with Richard Rodgers, including the creation of their musicals South Pacific, Me And Juliet, The King And I, Pipe Dream, and The Sound Of Music. If you missed the first two parts, you may want to catch up with those before listening to this one.
Laurie Winer has been a theater critic for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, and was a founding editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books.
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My guest again this week is the noted journalist and theater critic Laurie Winer, who returns for part two of our conversation about her book, Oscar Hammerstein II and the Invention of The Musical.
If you missed part one, you may want to catch up with that before listening to this one.
Following the triumph of Show Boat, during the 1930s Hammerstein experienced a very challenging decade of devastating flops on Broadway and very limited achievement in Hollywood. And that’s where we pick up our conversation.
Topics included in this episode include the musicals Oklahoma!, Carousel, and Allegro! as well the the stark differences between the personalities of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, their working methods, and their fruitful collaboration and contentious relationship with choreographer Agnes De Mille.
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For just $7.00 a month, you will receive exclusive access to never-before-heard, unedited versions of many of the discussions that I have with my guests — in fact, I often record nearly twice as much conversation as ends up in the edited versions. You will also have access to additional in-depth discussions with my frequent co-host, Albert Evans, that have not been featured on the podcast. All patrons receive special “on-air” shout-outs and acknowledgment of your vital support of this podcast. And if you are very enthusiastic about Broadway Nation, there are additional PATRON levels that come with even more benefits.
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My guest this week is the noted journalist and theater critic Laurie Winer, the author of a beautifully written and expertly researched book, Oscar Hammerstein II and the Invention of The Musical.
Diving deep into Hammerstein’s life and work, Winer, offers new insights into the groundbreaking achievements of the creator of Show Boat, Oklahoma, Carousel, South Pacific, and The Sound of Music, to name only a few of the musicals that made Hammerstein one of the most commercially successful and culturally significant artists of all time. In Winer’s view, Hammerstein can be credited more than anyone else with inventing the Broadway musical.
Laurie Winer has been a theater critic for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, and was a founding editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books.
How to become a PATRON of Broadway Nation!
This podcast is made possible in part by the generous support of our Patron Club Members, including longtime patron Chris Moad.
For just $7.00 a month, you will receive exclusive access to never-before-heard, unedited versions of many of the discussions that I have with my guests — in fact, I often record nearly twice as much conversation as ends up in the edited versions. You will also have access to additional in-depth discussions with my frequent co-host, Albert Evans, that have not been featured on the podcast. All patrons receive special “on-air” shout-outs and acknowledgment of your vital support of this podcast. And if you are very enthusiastic about Broadway Nation, there are additional PATRON levels that come with even more benefits.
If you would like to support the work of Broadway Nation and receive these exclusive member benefits, please just click on this link:
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Thank you in advance for your support!
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My guest is six-time Tony Award nominee Chad Beguelin, who has created book & lyrics for Broadway musicals The Prom, Disney’s Aladdin, The Wedding Singer, and Elf. Today, he joins me to discuss his captivating new novel set in the world of theater, SHOWMANCE.
The beautifully crafted plot of Showmance opens on the disastrous opening night of a new Broadway musical — Stage Of Fools — with book, music, and lyrics by Noah Adams, the novel’s central character. The scorching reviews the show receives, coupled with a family emergency, send Noah back to his Podunk hometown of Plainview, Illinois, where he figures he can hide out for a bit and lick his wounds. There, to his horror, he discovers that his agent (and longtime boyfriend, Chase) has secretly arranged for him to stage an amateur production of his musical at the hometown community theater he grew up in. And, of course, he also runs into Luke, the hot, sexy jerk from high school, whom he may have misjudged, all of which sets the stage for a delightful and often hilarious romantic comedy.
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Today’s episode is the second half of my conversation with Trevor Boffone regarding his fascinating new book:
TikTok Broadway — Musical Theatre Fandom in the Digital Age.
If you missed part one of our discussion, you may want to catch up with that before listening to this one.
Trevor Boffone is a Houston-based content creator and social media manager. His previous books include Renegades: Digital Dance Cultures from Dubsmash to TikTok and Latinx Teens: US Popular Culture on the Page, Stage, and Screen. He is also the editor of TikTok Cultures in the United States and the co-editor of five collections on Latinx popular culture and performance.
Today, Trevor and I explore several massively popular viral TikTok trends relating the Broadway and West End musicals SIX, Heathers, Wicked, and Mamma Mia! And he also shares with us his observations of the many ways that TikTok has become a performance space of its own for fans of Broadway musicals. We also delve into the phenomenon of musicals that have been created on TikTok such as Ratatouille — The Musical and Bridgerton — The Musical. This all brings up some big questions relating to the very nature of theater itself, and of course, the future of TikTok.
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My guest this week is Trevor Boffone whose new book is titled TikTok Broadway — Musical Theatre Fandom in the Digital Age.
I suspect that many of you, like me, are not on TikTok and may not immediately think this book will be of great interest to you. However, I encourage you to give it a listen because I think you will find what Boffone has to say in his book and in this discussion to be a fascinating and important aspect of recent Broadway history. I was quite captivated by it.
On this episode, we look at the history of Social Media and its relationships with the Broadway musical and how from the very beginning of TikTok in America, Broadway musicals became a key aspect of even it most mainstream content.
Trevor Boffone is a Houston-based content creator and social media manager. He is the author of Renegades: Digital Dance Cultures from Dubsmash to TikTok and the co-author of Latinx Teens: US Popular Culture on the Page, Stage, and Screen. He is the editor of TikTok Cultures in the United States and the co-editor of five collections on Latinx popular culture and performance.
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This podcast is made possible in part by the generous support of our Patron Club Members.
For just $7.00 a month, you will receive exclusive access to never-before-heard, unedited versions of many of the discussions that I have with my guests — in fact, I often record nearly twice as much conversation as ends up in the edited versions. You will also have access to additional in-depth discussions with my frequent co-host, Albert Evans, that have not been featured on the podcast. All patrons receive special “on-air” shout-outs and acknowledgment of your vital support of this podcast. And if you are very enthusiastic about Broadway Nation, there are additional PATRON levels that come with even more benefits.
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Today, my guest is my old friend, GERARD ALESSANDRINI, creator of the long-running off-Broadway hit revue Forbidden Broadway, which recently opened its 27th edition, FORBIDDEN BROADWAY — MERRILY WE STOLE A SONG now playing at Theater555 NYC.
On this episode, Gerard and I discuss not only this latest iteration of the show but also look back to its origins in 1980 and explore its remarkable forty-three-year history of hilariously skewering Broadway and insightfully spoofing its musicals, plays, and stars.
As you might imagine, Gerard and I went off on several entertaining tangents not directly related to the subject of this episode, resulting in an additional ten minutes of outtakes that are available exclusively to patrons of Broadway Nation. Here is the information about how you too can become a patron.
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This is the second part of my recent conversation with author Thomas Hischak regarding his new book, Song Of The Season — Outstanding Broadway Songs Since 1891.
In this captivating book, Hischak looks back at the history of the Broadway musical by chronicling of every New York theater season from 1891 to 2022 and then audaciously selecting one single song as the song of that particular season. To facilitate this discussion, I selected one or two songs from each decade covered in the book for us to discuss.
On this music-filled episode, we begin in 1938 with “September Song” from Knickerbocker Holiday and continue with his admittedly controversial selection of “I Enjoy Being A Girl” from Flower Drum Song (1958), “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound Of Music (1959), a mind-blowing leap of only seven years to “Aquarius” from Hair (1968), and on through “All that Jazz” from Chicago (1975), “The Lambeth Walk” from Me And My Girl (1986), the title song from Ragtime (1998), "Omar Sharif" from The Band’s Visit (2017), and the title song from Some Like It Hot (2022).
Thomas Hischak retired from full time teaching in New York State and now teaches theatre part-time at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, USA. He is the author of over 30 non-fiction books on theatre, film and popular music.
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Author Thomas Hischak returns to the Broadway Nation this week to tell us about his captivating new book, Song Of The Season — Outstanding Broadway Songs Since 1891.
For this book, Hischak analyzed every Broadway season since 1891 and selected one song as the most outstanding. In this episode, we discuss “Oh, Promise Me” from Robin Hood (1891), “In The Good Old Summertime” from The Defender (1902), “Defying Gravity” from Wicked (2003), “In Old New York” from The Red Mill, “They Didn’t Believe Me” from The Girl From Utah, “Charleston” from Runnin’ Wild, and “Begin The Beguine” from Jubilee (1935).
Thomas Hischak retired from full-time teaching in New York State and now teaches theatre part-time at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, USA. He is the author of more than 30 indispensable non-fiction books on theater, film, and popular music, and long-time listeners will remember him from episodes 104 and 105, where we discussed his previous book, The Abbott Touch — Pal Joey, Damn Yankees and the Theatre of George Abbott.
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Welcome to a new season of Broadway Nation — the podcast that delves deeply into the remarkable history of the Broadway musical, with a special focus on the Immigrant, Jewish, Queer, and Black Artists who invented it.
My guest today is Tony Award-winning Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell.
After a short break, I am excited to be back with a new season that will be jam-packed with fascinating Broadway history, including interviews with an amazing lineup of authors of some brilliant new books that take us back to the earliest days of Broadway and bring us right up to the twenty-first century — from George M. Cohan to how TikTok and the digital age have impacted the Broadway musical.
Today, we start things off with a bang with a delightful conversation with Brian Stokes Mitchell, whose career spans over forty years on television, films, recordings, concert appearances, and, most notably for our purposes, ten Broadway shows. He made his Broadway debut in 1988 in a short-lived musical called Mail, and in 1990, he was cast as the lead in David Merrick’s revival of the 1926 Gershwin musical Oh, Kay! He next went on to two very high-profile gigs — first replacing Gregory Hines in Jelly’s Last Jam and then Anthony Crivello in Kiss Of the Spiderwoman. In 1998, his unforgettable Tony-nominated performance as Coalhouse Walker in Ragtime firmly established him as a true Broadway star, and the following year, jumping from musical drama to musical comedy, he won the Tony Award for his performance in Kiss Me Kate. His performance in August Wilson’s play, King Hedley II, in 2001 earned another Tony nomination, and the next year, he took on the title role in Man Of La Mancha. His most recent Broadway appearance was in 2016 in George Woolf’s behind-the-scenes look at Shuffle Along, but as you will hear, Brian Stokes Mitchell may be back on Broadway very soon in a new musical that he is very excited about.
In addition, our conversation today ranges from two tear-inducing new video performances that he has recently been involved in creating and performing: a Ted Talk with Leer deBessonet, which you can find at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZNhuRIGQZs and "Hope" with Jason Robert Brown, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJkqV2xwars.
Also, his work with The Entertainment Fund and the soon-to-be-released video capture of their reunion concert of Ragtime, as well as a peek inside his process and approach to interpreting a song.
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Hi this is David Armstrong. You may be wondering where I and Broadway Nation have been over the past few weeks. As you will hear, I have been battling a wicked case of bronchitis and today is the first day in ten days that I have been able to talk even enough to croak out this brief message.
At the end of the summer, I had been planning to take a few weeks off from podcasting anyway, and this bronchitis has just jumpstarted that break. So here’s the plan:
On September 19 Broadway Nation will return for an exciting new season featuring a fascinating line-up of authors who have written some amazing new books. We will start with author Thomas Hischak who will kick us off with a discussion of Song Of The Season — Outstanding Broadway Songs since 1891. In the weeks that follow, you will meet Laurie Winer talking about Oscar Hammerstein and the Invention of The Musical, Doug Reside on his book Fixing the Musical — How Technologies Shaped The Broadway Repertory, Trevor Boffone who has written about TikTok Broadway. Dustyn Martincich and Pheobe Rumsay will discuss Dance In Musical Theatre — A History of the Body In Movement, Christopher Connelly on Helen Morgan: The original Torch Singer and Ziegfeld’s Last Star, and Joshua Rosenblum and his book Closer Than Ever — The Unique Six-Decade Songwriting Partnership of Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire.
And that’s just the beginning! As always Albert Evans will join me for some deep dives into Broadway’s past and, no doubt, there will be previews of my upcoming book. I guarantee it will all be worth the wait.
In the meantime, you are invited to join more than 2600 fans of this podcast in the Broadway Nation Facebook Group where every day you can find posts and videos about the Broadway musical and Immigrant, Jewish, Queer and Black artist who invented it.
See you soon!
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I’m David Armstrong, and my guest again today is author Andrew L. Erdman, whose captivating new book is titled Beautiful — The Story of Julian Eltinge, America's Greatest Female Impersonator.
In this third and final episode in this series, Andrew shares with us the story of how Julian Eltinge capitalized on his international Vaudeville and Broadway fame and became a major movie star in Hollywood and how that coincided with a golden age of female impersonation in America. We also explore the challenges Eltinge faced during the final years of his career as America became more conservative and began to restrict and censor drag performance in the 1930s.
If you missed the earlier episodes in this series, you may want to catch up with those before listening to this one.
Author Andrew Erdman has immersed himself in this remarkable era of show biz history; his previous book was the equally fascinating Queen of Vaudeville: The Story of Eva Tanquay
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For just $7.00 a month, you will receive exclusive access to never-before-heard, unedited versions of many of the discussions that I have with my guests — in fact I often record nearly twice as much conversation as ends up in the edited versions. You will also have access to additional in-depth conversations with my frequent co-host Albert Evans that have not been featured on the podcast. All patrons receive special “on-air” shout-outs and acknowledgment of your vital support of this podcast. And if you are very enthusiastic about Broadway Nation there are additional PATRON levels that come with even more benefits.
If you would like to support the work of Broadway Nation and receive these exclusive member benefits, please just click on this link:
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My guest again this week is author Andrew Erdman, whose captivating new book is Beautiful—The Story of Julian Eltinge, America's Greatest Female Impersonator.
In this episode, Andrew continues the story of Julian Eltinge’s rise to the absolute highest realms of show business — and we especially focus on three musicals that were created especially for him by top Broadway talents such as Otto Harbach, Jerome Kern, and Irving Berlin: That Fascinating Widow (1911), The Crinoline Girl (1914), and Cousin Lucy (1915).
Along the way, you will have a chance to hear some of the songs that they created for Eltinge, as performed by a friend of the pod David Sabella (aka Amanda Reckonwith) including “Those Come Hither Eyes” – from the musical Cousin Lucy (lyrics by Schuler Green; music by Jerome Kern), and "Don't Take Your Beau to the Seashore," (music by Irving Berlin; lyrics by E. Ray Goetz).
If you missed the first episode in this series, you may want to catch up with that before listening to this one.
Author Andrew Erdman has immersed himself in this remarkable era of show biz history; his previous book was the equally fascinating Queen of Vaudeville: The Story of Eva Tanquay
Become a PATRON of Broadway Nation!
This podcast is made possible in part by the generous support of our Patron Club Members, including our newest member Alan Teasley.
For just $7.00 a month, you will receive exclusive access to never-before-heard, unedited versions of many of the discussions that I have with my guests — in fact I often record nearly twice as much conversation as ends up in the edited versions. You will also have access to additional in-depth conversations with my frequent co-host Albert Evans that have not been featured on the podcast. All patrons receive special “on-air” shout-outs and acknowledgment of your vital support of this podcast. And if you are very enthusiastic about Broadway Nation there are additional PATRON levels that come with even more benefits.
If you would like to support the work of Broadway Nation and receive these exclusive member benefits, please just click on this link:
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My guest on this episode is Andrew L. Erdman, who is the author of the new book: Beautiful — The Story of Julian Eltinge, America's Greatest Female Impersonator.
In the late 19th and early 20th Century — long before the fierce television Drag stars of today — a specific style of drag performance known as Female Impersonation was wildly popular on stage and screen — in America and around the world.
And no female impersonator was more famous, successful, or highly regarded than Julian Eltinge.
Although barely remembered today, in his time, Eltinge was on a par with Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, and Fanny Brice, and was so popular and renowned that he even had a Broadway theater named after him! That theater still exists, and you can still go there and see Julian Eltinge — but you will have to listen to the episode(s) to find out where and how.
Author Andrew Erdman has immersed himself in this remarkable era of show biz history; his previous book was the equally fascinating Queen of Vaudeville: The Story of Eva Tanquay
Become a PATRON of Broadway Nation!
This podcast is made possible in part by the generous support of our Patron Club Members, including members John Schroeder and Alan Brodie.
For just $7.00 a month, you will receive exclusive access to never-before-heard, unedited versions of many of the discussions that I have with my guests — in fact I often record nearly twice as much conversation as ends up in the edited versions. You will also have access to additional in-depth conversations with my frequent co-host Albert Evans that have not been featured on the podcast. All patrons receive special “on-air” shout-outs and acknowledgment of your vital support of this podcast. And if you are very enthusiastic about Broadway Nation there are additional PATRON levels that come with even more benefits.
If you would like to support the work of Broadway Nation and receive these exclusive member benefits, please just click on this link:
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This special encore episode of Broadway Nation was first released in the fall of 2022.
My guest is PAUL SALSINI, who many listeners will remember as the founder and original editor of The Sondheim Review, the first and only quarterly magazine ever devoted to a living musical theater composer.
Paul passed away earlier this month, at the age of 88, so I thought this was a very appropriate time to revisit this fascinating conversation.
Paul launched the magazine in 1994, and over the following ten years, Paul exchanged notes, letters, faxes and phone calls with Stephen Sondheim — who it was clear was reading every word of every issue of the magazine — and Sondheim often had corrections and comments, or as he called them, “emendations.” On a few occasions these notes and phone calls included “vigorous objections” to what Paul had included the magazine, but overall Sondheim was wonderfully supportive and helpful.
In his book SONDHEIM AND ME, Paul chronicles his unlikely relationship with Sondheim during an eventful period that included the New York premieres of Passion and Saturday Night, the Kennedy Center’s Sondheim Celebration, Broadway revivals of six of Sondheim’s major works, and the decade long development of the musical that would eventually be called Road Show.
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My guest this week is award-winning entertainer Richard Skipper, who joins me to talk about his new show, Still Going Strong—A Celebration of 60 Years of Hello Dolly!, which he will be bringing to various venues on several continents over the next few months, starting with Crazy Coqs in London on August 5th.
As you will hear, it was Richard’s friendship with Carol Channing that inspired him to begin chronicling the history of Hello Dolly!, and over the past fifteen years, Richard Skipper has interviewed more than 1,000 participants of various productions of the show. That this discussion follows on the heels of the Bette Midler series of podcasts is a happy quirk of serendipity!
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For just $7.00 a month, you will receive exclusive access to never-before-heard, unedited versions of many of the discussions that I have with my guests — in fact I often record nearly twice as much conversation as ends up in the edited versions. You will also have access to additional in-depth conversations with my frequent co-host Albert Evans that have not been featured on the podcast. All patrons receive special “on-air” shout-outs and acknowledgment of your vital support of this podcast. And if you are very enthusiastic about Broadway Nation there are additional PATRON levels that come with even more benefits.
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Today I am excited to share with you the third and final segment of my conversation with author Kevin Winkler regarding his new book, On Bette Midler: An Opinionated Guide.
In this engaging book, Kevin focuses on all aspects of Bette Midler’s career — on stage, recordings, film, and television. But in this conversation, again we focus primarily on her work as a theater artist. If you missed the other two episodes in this series, you may want to listen to those before jumping into this one.
For more than twenty years, Kevin was a curator, archivist, and administrator at the New York Public Library, and prior to that, he was a professional dancer on Broadway. His previous books include the award-winning Big Deal: Bob Fosse and Dance in the American Musical, and Everything is Choreography: The Musical Theatre of Tommy Tune.
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If you would like to support the work of Broadway Nation and receive these exclusive member benefits, please just click on this link:
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On today’s episode author Kevin Winkler returns for the second part of our discussion of his fascinating new book, On Bette Midler — An Opinionated Guide.
If you missed part one of this conversation, you may want to catch up with that before listening to this one.
In that episode, Kevin and I touched on Bette’s childhood, explored her early years in the off-off-Broadway experimental and very campy Gay theater scene, detailed her unusual rise to at least demi-stardom at the Continental Baths, her debut on Broadway in Fiddler On The Roof, and her Tony Award wining concert at the Palace Theater which set the stage for the first of what Kevin calls her Broadway musicals of her own devising: Bette Midler’s Clams On The Halfshell Revue, conceived and staged by Broadway director/choreographer Joe Layton, and the shows that followed.
For more than twenty years Kevin Winkler was a curator, archivist, and administrator at the New York Public Library, and prior to that, he was a professional dancer. His previous books include the award-winning Big Deal: Bob Fosse and Dance in the American Musical in 2018, and Everything is Choreography: The Musical Theatre of Tommy Tune. Kevin and I discussed that terrific book on several episodes of Broadway Nation back at the beginning of 2022.
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This week I am excited to welcome author Kevin Winkler back to Broadway Nation to discuss his new book, On Bette Midler: An Opinionated Guide.
This engaging book is a critical analysis of every aspect of Bette Midler’s career on stage, recordings, film, and television, but in this conversation, we focus primarily on her work as a theater artist. To date, Midler’s long career has been bookended by her appearances in two classic Broadway musicals, Fiddler On The Roof and Hello, Dolly! In between, she invented her distinctive brand of musical theater—“musicals of her own devising,” as Kevin calls them.
For more than twenty years Kevin Winkler was a curator, archivist, and administrator at the New York Public Library, and prior to that, he was a professional dancer. His previous books include the award-winning Big Deal: Bob Fosse and Dance in the American Musical in 2018, and Everything is Choreography: The Musical Theatre of Tommy Tune. Kevin and I discussed that terrific book on several episodes of Broadway Nation back at the beginning of 2022.
Become a PATRON of Broadway Nation!
This podcast is made possible in part by the generous support of our Patron Club Members, including long time member, ANNE WELSH.
For just $7.00 a month, you will receive exclusive access to never-before-heard, unedited versions of many of the discussions that I have with my guests — in fact I often record nearly twice as much conversation as ends up in the edited versions. You will also have access to additional in-depth conversations with my frequent co-host Albert Evans that have not been featured on the podcast. All patrons receive special “on-air” shout-outs and acknowledgment of your vital support of this podcast. And if you are very enthusiastic about Broadway Nation there are additional PATRON levels that come with even more benefits.
If you would like to support the work of Broadway Nation and receive these exclusive member benefits, please just click on this link:
https://broadwaynationpodcast.supercast.tech/
Thank you in advance for your support!
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In this Encore Episode from 2021, 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 quarterly magazine that I know many of you remember fondly, and for 12 years, from 2004 to 2016, he served as its managing editor. His latest venture, The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia, is a 638 page overview of anything and everything related to Sondheim’s work, life and career.
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