Episodes

In this episode I explore the growing visibility of queer stories, themes and characters on Broadway in musicals such as Hair, Coco, Applause, Seesaw, A Chorus Line, and La Cage Aux Folles, as well as the devastating effect that the AIDS Crisis had on Broadway during the 1980s and 90s when a whole…

In this episode I explore the history of what is called the “Concept Musical”, including its key creators: Harold Prince, Stephen Sondheim, Kander & Ebb, Michael Bennett and their game changing musicals Cabaret, Company, Follies, A Chorus Line, Chicago, Cats, and Dreamgirls.

In this episode I celebrate 1970s Broadway, and 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 them were dynamic new, original musical plays – mostly adaptations of popular play…

In this episode I continue my review of Broadway’s Nostalgia Craze of the 1970s and beyond. This includes the musicals Grease, Irene, Over Here!, Very Good Eddie, Whoopee!, Sugar Babies, 42nd Street A Day In Hollywood A Night In The Ukraine, On Your Toes, My One And Only, Crazy For You, Me And My …

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 look at its roots in the counterculture youth rebellion of the 1960’s, the re…

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…

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 by the end of the decad…

In this episode I focus on the 1959–1960 which brought us Gypsy vs. The Sound Of Music. And you could subtitle this episode Ethel Merman vs. Mary Martin! Spoiler alert: There was a tie for the Best Musical Tony Award that season, but if you don’t already know the story, it probably didn’t end up …

In this episode, Albert Evans and I take an in-depth look at two classic musicals that went head to head at the 1958 TONY Awards -- .West Side Story and The Music Man. We explore the conception, development and storied history of these legendary shows, and look “under the hood” to discover just w…

This is the second part of my discussion with Tony Award winning Costume Designer Ann Hould-Ward in which we trace the legacy chain of Broadway costume design expertise that was handed down directly over a 100 year period from Aileen Bernstein to Irene Sharriff to Patricia Zipprott to Ann Hould-War…

One of the main threads of this podcast is how the arts and crafts of the Broadway Musical have been handed down directly from one practitioner to the next, generation to generation. In this episode I trace the legacy chain of Broadway Costume Design that was handed down directly from Aileen Berns…

The Golden Age of Broadway’s new revolutionary way of writing musicals did not just apply to musical plays like those of Rodgers & Hammerstein and Lerner & Loewe – it also transformed the Musical Comedy. In this episode I share the stories of how their success with Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your G…

In this episode Albert Evans and I tell the story Trude Rittman who during the "Golden Age of Broadway" (and beyond) 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…

In this episode I explore two musicals that led to the "Golden Age of Broadway" -- Lady In The Dark and On The Town. And I highlight the career of Lerner & Loewe, the first major team to follow in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s footsteps, and rival their achievements with their musicals Brigadoon, My Fai…

Stephen Sondheim considers "The Bench Scene" in Rodgers & Hammerstein's CAROUSEL to be “the singular most important moment in the evolution of contemporary musicals.” In this episode the amazing Albert Evans takes us inside the music with his fascinating, in-depth look at this landmark musical seq…

In this episode Albert Evans and I continue our exploration of the amazing "legacy chain" during which the art and craft of writing Broadway Musicals was handed down directly from Otto Harbach to Oscar Hammerstein to Stephen Sondheim to Lin-Manwell Miranda. The shows of these four great artists e…

In this episode and the next Albert Evans and I explore the knowledge, understanding, and skills that were handed down directly from Otto Harbach to Oscar Hammerstein to Stephen Sondheim to Lin-Manwell Miranda. Listen to the story of how the Musical evolved from "Silver Age" to "Golden Age" and ri…

During the 1930s Broadway was severely impacted by the economic disaster of the "Great Depression". However, somehow out of all that hardship and struggle rose an extraordinary period of artistic achievement and spectacular development for the Broadway Musical.

This episode explores at the first half of what I call "The Silver Age Of Broadway" -- a period that spans from the end of WWI to the opening of CAROUSEL in 1945. "The Roaring '20s" brought The Jazz Age to Broadway via a new crop of brilliant young songwriters including George & Ira Gershwin; Rudo…

In this episode I share the often overlooked stories of Broadway's groundbreaking female choreographers including Aida Overton Walker, Gertrude Hoffman, Albertina Rauch, Hanya Holm,, Onna White, and especially Agnes DeMille who is arguably the most important woman in the history of the Musical. I …

In this episode my special guest Albert Evans and I will share the often overlooked stories of Broadway's female songwriters and bookwriters including Dorothy Donnelly, Betty Comden, Bella Spewack, Mary Rodgers, Carolyn Leigh, and Dorothy Fields - whose amazing 50-year career stretched from the vau…

In this episode David Armstrong shares the fascinating stories of Broadway's defining queer choreographers Robert Alton & Jack Cole, the legendary gay songwriters Noel Coward and Larry Hart, and prolific bookwriter Herbert Fields, who may be one of the most significant and least known inventors of …

In this episode David Armstrong shares the fascinating stories of early queer producing and life partners Charles Frohman and Charles Dillingham; the first great gay director Hassard Short, drag superstars Julian Eltinge & Bert Savoy, the "Pansy Craze", and the immortal Cole Porter!

The 1920's begin to roar when Eubie Blake and many other brilliant black theater artists bring the Jazz Age to Broadway..