Today’s episode is the second part of my recent conversation with author BEN WEST, regarding his his exceptionally comprehensive new book: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL — EVOLUTION OF AN ART FORM. This book traces the American Musical’s creative journey from its 19th Century beginnings through its 20th Century maturation, and on to the turn of the 21st century. Along the way, Ben West sheds new light on a myriad of shows, authors, directors, and performers including a host of often-overlooked women...

My guest this week is author BEN WEST, who joins me to discuss his exceptional new book: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL — EVOLUTION OF AN ART FORM. This book is a comprehensive history of the American Musical that traces the form’s creative journey from its 19th Century beginnings through its 20th Century maturation, and on to the turn of the 21st century. Along the way Ben sheds new light on a myriad of authors, directors, and craftspeople who worked on Broadway and beyond. In a similar way to this...

My guest this week is Jack Viertel who joins us to talk about his delightful new novel, Broadway Melody. This is one of a fascinating wave of novels that explore the history of Broadway though a combination of fictional characters and real-life Broadway figures. Jack Viertel began his theatrical career as a drama critic for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and then worked as a dramaturg at the Mark Taper Forum. This led to him serving three decades as Creative Director and Senior Vice...

During an incredible Broadway career that stretched from 1953 to 1998, composer Cy Coleman created the music for 12 Broadway musicals. Unlike most Broadway composers, however, he was never part of an ongoing songwriting team but instead worked with seven very talented but very different collaborators. My guest today is one of those esteemed lyricists -- David Zippel who partnered with Cy Coleman on the score for the 1990 Tony Award winning "Best Musical", City Of Angels the hit musical that...

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 Shariff to Patricia Zipprodt to Ann Hould-Ward, herself. If you missed the previous episode you may want to listen to that first.  During our discussion was also touch on the careers of the legendary designers Florence Klotz, Ann Roth, Willa...

To celebrate Women's History Month he is the first of two episodes recorded during the pandemic about the history of Broadway Costume design with special guest Ann Hould-Ward. Irene Sharraff is the legendary Broadway costume designer whose incredible 56-year career spanned from 1933 to 1989. She designed the costumes for more than 52 Broadway musicals including As Thousands Cheer, Jubilee, On Your Toes, The Boys From Syracuse, Lady In The Dark, The King And I, West Side Story, Flower Drum...

My guest this week is Robert W. Schneider who joins me to talk about his new podcast, Broadway Bound — The Musicals That Never Came To Broadway. Each of the ten episodes in the first season of this wonderfully researched new series focuses on a high-profile musical that was on its way to Broadway but for various reasons never made it. Analyzing and identifying those reasons is part of what makes this series so fascinating. Musicals featured in the first season include Arthur, Minsky’s,...

My guest again this week is author Maya Cantu who returns for the third and final part of our conversation about her fascinating book: Greasepaint Puritan — Boston to 42nd Street in the Queer Backstage Novels of Bradford Ropes. In this episode we focus on Ropes’ 1934 novel, Go Into Your Dance, the third in his evocative backstage trilogy which also includes 42nd Street (the source material for both the classic film and the stage musical), and Stage Mother, (a sort of proto version...

My guest again today is author Maya Cantu who returns to discuss her book, Greasepaint Puritan — Boston to 42nd Street in the Queer Backstage Novels of Bradford Ropes. In this terrific new book Maya reclaims the life and work of vaudeville, nightclub and Broadway dancer turned novelist and screenwriter Bradford Ropes, with a central focus on his three long-forgotten backstage novels: 42nd Street on which the classic film and stage adaptation were based, Go Into Your Dance, a thinly disguised...

 My guest this week is author Maya Cantu who joins me to discuss her new book, Greasepaint Puritan — Boston to 42nd Street in the Queer Backstage Novels of Bradford Ropes. In this book Maya reclaims the life and work of Bradford Ropes, the author of the naughty, bawdy, gaudy, sporty, and very gay novel, 42nd Street, on which both the classic film and stage adaptation are based. That’s just the first of his three long-forgotten novels that include Stage Mother and Go Into Your Dance, all of...

This is a special encore episode of Broadway Nation. 1970s Broadway experienced another blast from the past with 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 these were new, original musical plays – mostly adaptations of popular plays or novels. All of them employed a combination of rhythm & blues, pop, rock, jazz and traditional Broadway style music to help tell their...

My guest today is the prolific and award-winning book writer and lyricist Stephen Cole who joins me today to talk about his new novel: Mary & Ethel…and Mikey Who? I found it to be a terrific book, both wildly funny and very moving. And as you will hear, at times it feels like Stephen wrote this novel especially for me, and for the fans of this podcast. Stephen Cole is an award-winning musical theatre writer whose shows have been produced from New York City to London to the Middle East and...

My guest today is theatrical animal trainer Bill Berloni. Beginning with the original production of ANNIE in 1977, Bill has provided and trained animals of all species and sizes for 27 Broadway musicals and plays, as well as for countless Off-Broadway shows, National Tours, regional theaters, movies, television shows, commercials and the NYC Ballet – and he found almost all of those animal actors in shelters, humane societies and rescue leagues.  His awards include a 2011 Tony Honor for...

My guest this week is Ted Chapin whose captivating 2003 book Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical “Follies,” has recently been reissued in a revised and updated edition.  As you may know, this book is based on Ted’s first-hand experience as the production assistant on the original Broadway production of the Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, & James Goldman landmark musical Follies. Of course, the expression, “I just couldn’t put that book down” is a cliché – but in this case, it...

This is the second half of my conversation with author Liza Gennaro, whose fascinating book is titled: Making Broadway Dance.  If you missed part one you may want to catch up on that episode before listening to this one. Liza is currently the Dean of Musical Theater at the Manhattan School of Music and she also has had a very active and successful career as a dancer and choreographer. Interestingly, she is closely related to this subject matter of her book because her father was the Tony...

This is the first half of my recent conversation with author Liza Gennaro, whose fascinating new book is titled: Making Broadway Dance. Liza is currently the Dean of Musical Theater at the Manhattan School of Music and prior to that she had a very active and successful career as a dancer and choreographer on Broadway and with prominent theater companies across the country. Most notably she choreographed the hit Broadway revival of Frank Loessor’s The Most Happy Fella. As she writes in the...

Why are the great Musicals so unforgettable? Why do musicals have so much power and impact? How is it that they are able to live in our hearts and memories for a lifetime? Musicals are experiences that get embedded in our psyche. We remember them forever -- vividly and in often in great and specific detail. And they get embedded in our emotional and physical memory as well. Our bodies and nervous systems recall how we felt when we experienced them years, even lifetimes later. In this Season...

This is the second of two special holiday bonus episodes of Broadway Nation. Just like the first, this is an audio version of a Broadway Nation Live! performance that was given in December of 2019 at the Vashon Center For The Performing Arts on Vashon Island, WA. If you prefer to watch a video of this performance you can stream it on their website at: vashoncenterforthearts.org In Part One we looked at how the Jewish-Russian immigrant songwriter, Irving Berlin -- in addition to being one of...

This is a special holiday reprise of one of Broadway Nation's most popular episodes: It's an audio version of a Broadway Nation Live! performance that was presented in December of 2019 at the Vashon Center For The Performing Arts on Vashon Island just outside of Seattle, WA. Several previous episodes of Broadway Nation have explored the crucial role that the Jewish Russian immigrant songwriter, Irving Berlin, played in the invention of the Broadway Musical. This time I share the story of how...

This is the seventh and final episode in my series of conversations with author OLIVER SODEN regarding his recent book: MASQUERADE: THE LIVES OF NOEL COWARD This week we explore the final chapters of both Coward's life and this brilliant biography. Remarkably, during the final decade of his life Coward wrote the book, music & lyrics for two Broadway musicals — SAIL AWAY (starring Elaine Stritch) and THE GIRL WHO CAME TO SUPPER (Starring Jose Ferer & Florence Henderson), and directed...

This week marks the 124th birthday Noel Coward who was born on December 16, 1899, just in time to become, without a doubt, one of the most remarkable figures of the 20th Century. And yes, his parents named him Noel because his birth came so close to Christmas! So it couldn’t be more appropriate that today’s episode is the sixth in series of discussions with Oliver Soden, the author of the truly remarkable new book, Masquerade — The Lives of Noel Coward. Become a PATRON of Broadway Nation! I...

My guest again this week is Oliver Soden whose recent book is titled Masquerade – The Lives of Noel Coward. I am devoting more episodes to this book than I have to any previous books, but I found the writing and research to be so exceptional, and this conversation with Soden to be so captivating that I don’t want you to miss any of it. Today Oliver and I focus on a very difficult period in Noel Coward’s career when his was seen to be seriously out of step with the theatrical world of post-war...

This is the fourth part of my interview with Oliver Soden author of the truly extraordinary new book MASQUERADE — THE LIVES OF NOEL COWARD. In this episode we discuss Noel Coward’s life and career during the late 1930s including his amazingly provocative play DESIGN FOR LIVING and the bisexual love triangle at the center of it, as well as dazzling series of nine one act plays and musicals that make up TONIGHT AT 8:30 in which Coward and Gertrude Lawrence played a dazzling array of characters,...

This is the third part of my interview with Oliver Soden author of the truly extraordinary new book MASQUERADE — THE LIVES OF NOEL COWARD.  In this episode we discuss Noel Coward’s life and career during the 1930s including what has become his most produced play Private Lives, his spectacular patriotic anti-war pageant Cavalcade, and his final musical revue, Words And Music (which was titled Set To Music on Broadway.) And most especially his relationship with the great Gertrude Lawrence. If...