BROADWAY NATION

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.

 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 Producer Level Patrons Paula & Steve Reynolds.

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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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.

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 Neil Hoyt.

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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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.

Become a PATRON of Broadway Nation!

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.

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 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.

Become a PATRON of Broadway Nation!

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.

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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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.

Become a PATRON of Broadway Nation!

This podcast is made possible in part by the generous support of our Patron Club Members, including Geoffrey Block and Larry Spinelli

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 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.

Become a PATRON of Broadway Nation!

This podcast is made possible in part by the generous support of our Patron Club Members, including Tayrn Darr and Cheryl Hodges-Seldon.

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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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.

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:

https://broadwaynationpodcast.supercast.tech/

Thank you in advance for your support!

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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.

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:

https://broadwaynationpodcast.supercast.tech/

Thank you in advance for your support!

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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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