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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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

African-American theater artists played a much larger role in the creation of the Broadway Musical than is generally acknowledged -- including an entire decade of nearly forgotten hit shows and songs! In this episode we will rediscover the early history …

In this episode David Armstrong and special quest Albert Evans continue the amazing story of how Jewish, Irish and other immigrants invented the Broadway Musical -- including the immortal contributions of Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, McCarthy & Tierney, Eddie Cantor, …