Episodes

With special guest -- Tony Award winner David Zippel

Part two of my conversation with Caseen Gaines, author of the new book, FOOTNOTES: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way

A conversation with Caseen Gaines, author of FOOTNOTES: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way

Today my guest is Rick Pender, author of The Stephen Sondheim Encyclopedia, the new and extraordinarily comprehensive guide to everything Sondheim.

This week’s special holiday episode tells the story of how the great Jewish-Russian immigrant songwriter, Irving Berlin, not only played a huge role in the invention the Broadway Musical, but also invented an entirely new category of popular song – the Christmas standard. This episode is an audio version of a Broadway Nation Live! performance that was presented in December 2019 at the Vashon Center For The Performing Arts on Vashon Island in Washington State.