BROADWAY NATION

Women have had a much more significant impact on the Broadway Musical than has generally been reported or acknowledged.In fact, talented, dynamic women have been a major force in the creation and development of the American musical theater from the very beginning and right up to today. In this episode my special guest Albert Evans and I will share the often overlooked stories of songwriters and bookwriters Rida Johnson Young, Dorothy Donnelly, Nora Bays, Ann Ronell, Kay Swift, Betty Comden, Bella Spewack, Mary Rodgers, Carolyn Leigh, and especially Dorothy Fields, whose amazing 50-year career stretched from the vaudeville era to the age of rock! Special thanks to Billie Wildrick for her voice acting contributions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To a great extent the Broadway Musical has been a queer creation -- and for more than 125 years the musical theater world has been filled with brilliant and creative LGBTQ people, including many in the highest positions of power and influence. In this episode David Armstrong shares the fascinating stories Broadway's defining queer choreographers Robert Alton & Jack Cole, the legendary gay songwriters Noel Coward and Larry Hart, directors Monty Wooley and Moss Hart, and prolific bookwriter Herbert Fields, who is without doubt one of the most significant and least known inventors of the Broadway Musical! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From its earliest days, the Broadway Musical has to a very large degree, been a Queer creation. 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 delightful, delicious and delovely Cole Porter! Special thanks to Billie Wildrick and David Sabella for their vocal contributions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 1920's brought the second great era of musicals that were written by, staged by, and starring African-American theater artists to Broadway. In this episode I profile these brilliant creators and stars including Eubie Blake & Noble Sissle, Flournoy Miller & Aurbry Lyles, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and their musicals -- "Shuffle Along", "Runnin' Wild", "Blackbirds of 1929", "Hot Chocolates" and more. It also includes a brief history of that great African-American/Irish-American co-creation -- Tap Dancing. And featuring music by The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra -- for more music from this era check out their terrific "Black Manhattan" series of recordings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 of Black Broadway, and the amazingly multi-talented men and women whose legacy still inspires Broadway today, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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, Fanny Brice,, and Florenz Ziegfeld. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, host David Armstrong, along with special guest, Albert Evans, begin to tell the amazing story of how Immigrants, Jews, Queers, and African-Americans invented America's signature art form -- the Broadway Musical. The Broadway Musical was born around the turn of the last century and it emerged out of what we used to call “the melting pot” – that simmering confluence of cultures and races that were packed into the teeming tenement neighborhoods of New York City. To an enormous extent the Musical can be called an “Immigrant art form” – it certainly was originated almost entirely by men and women from outside of the mainstream of society.” What they created was something totally new. A popular, democratic kind of music-theater that -- like most great American inventions -- was inspired by both a strong desire to express oneself, and a strong necessity to put food on the table. The concept of “the melting pot” has lost favor with some historians, but it remains a very apt description of how various multi-cultural artistic traditions blended together to create the American musical. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices