BROADWAY NATION
A lively and opinionated cultural history of the Broadway Musical that tells the extraordinary story of how Immigrants, Jews, Queers, African-Americans and other outcasts invented the Broadway Musical, and how they changed America in the process.In Season One, host David Armstrong traces the evolution of American Musical Theater from its birth at the dawn of the 20th Century, through its mid-century “Golden Age”, and right up to its current 21st Century renaissance; and also explore how musicals have reflected and shaped our world -- especially in regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, and equality.
Episodes
June 23, 2026 • 36 mins
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June 18, 2026 • 44 mins
My guest again this week is Andrew Erdman, author of the captivating book, Beautiful—The Story of Julian Eltinge, America's Greatest Female Impersonator.
In this episode, Andrew continues the story of Eltinge’s rise to the absolute highest realms of show business — and we especially focus on three musicals that were created especially for him by top Broadway talents such as Otto Harbach, Jerome Kern, and Irving B...
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June 13, 2026 • 43 mins
My guest on this episode is Andrew L. Erdman, who is the author of the new book: Beautiful — The Story of Julian Eltinge, America's Greatest Female Impersonator.
In the late 19th and early 20th Century — long before the fierce television Drag stars of today — a specific style of drag performance known as Female Impersonation was wildly popular on stage and screen — in America and around the world.
And no f...
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June 8, 2026 • 44 mins
This is the second half of my conversation with Deborah Phillips author of the fascinating book, AND THIS IS MY FRIEND SANDY — SANDY WILSON’S THE BOY FRIEND, LONDON THEATRE AND GAY CULTURE.
If you missed the previous episode you may want to catch up with that before listening to this one.
The Boyfriend is one of the most popular and successful British musicals of all time. On the previous episode Deborah Philli...
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June 4, 2026 • 48 mins
My guest this week is author Deborah Phillips whose new book is titled:
AND THIS IS MY FRIEND SANDY — SANDY WILSON’S THE BOY FRIEND, LONDON THEATRE AND GAY CULTURE.
Sandy Wilson's The Boyfriend — for which he wrote the book, music, & lyrics — is one of the most successful British musicals of all time. It emerged in 1952 out of London’s secretive but vibrant gay theatrical subculture, at a time wh...
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May 31, 2026 • 29 mins
This is the second part of my conversation with author Barry Kester whose fascinating new book is titled: Round In Circles — The Story of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s CAROUSEL.
Last week we focused on the three people most responsible for the creation of CAROUSEL — Oscar Hammerstein, Richard Rodgers, and the dynamic producer Theresa Helburn, whose vision and obsession it was to turn Ferenc Molnar’s play Lili...
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May 26, 2026 • 44 mins
My guest on Broadway Nation this week is Barry Kester, author of the fascinating new book:
Round In Circles — The Story of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s CAROUSEL.
I thought I knew a lot about Carousel — and in fact Albert Evans and I have previously devoted several previous episodes to that show and its truly groundbreaking innovations. However, we both found this book to be filled with new information, new ...
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May 20, 2026 • 30 mins
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 the unlikely success of Irving Berlin's ANNIE GET YOUR GUN and Cole Porter's KISS ME KATE inspired a new generation of writers, directors, choreographers, stars, and produc...
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May 3, 2026 • 45 mins
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April 13, 2026 • 42 mins
I am very pleased to share with you part one of my recent conversation with authors Paige Allan and Stacy Wolf about their fascinating new book, Feminist Approaches to Musical Theater.
Paige Allen is a writer, researcher, and storyteller. She holds a Masters degree in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the Oxford University of and an BA in English from Princeton University, USA.
Stacy Wolf is Professor of Thea...
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March 5, 2026 • 49 mins
This is the second half of my recent conversation with Tony Award-winning composer, lyricist, arranger, and music producer MARC SHAIMAN about his new, New York Times bestselling book, NEVER MIND THE HAPPY.
During his five-decade career, Marc has found enormous success in nearly every aspect of show business, but in this episode, we focus on his
experiences on Broadway, including CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, CHARLIE AND
THE CHOCOLATE FAC...
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February 27, 2026 • 37 mins
During the 1930s Broadway was severely impacted by the economic disaster of the "Great Depression". However, somehow out of all that hardship and struggle came an extraordinary period of artistic achievement and spectacular continuing development for the Broadway Musical. The inventors of these shows included several new and defining masters of the musical, as well as many of the bright lights of the 1920’s, who now achieved ...
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February 19, 2026 • 34 mins
My guest today on Broadway Nation is the Tony Award-winning composer, lyricist, arranger, and music producer, MARC SHAIMAN, who has found spectacular success in nearly every aspect of the entertainment industry, including film, television, and theater, but is probably best known to fans of this podcast as the composer and co-lyricist of the Broadway smash hit musical HAIRSPRAY.
Marc joins us today to tell us about his star-studd...
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February 7, 2026 • 65 mins
My guest this week is Barry Joseph, the author of the recent book, Matching
Minds with Sondheim.
Since his death, there have been so many books about Stephen Sondheim and various aspects of his life and his career, including an amazing number of really terrific books, and I have had the honor of having many of the authors of those books as guests on this podcast. And Barry Joseph’s book is right up there with the best of t...
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January 29, 2026 • 64 mins
This is the fourth and final episode in which Albert Evans and I go in search
of the 1934 smash-hit musical The Great Waltz, one of the longest-running
shows of the 1930s.
The goal of this occasional series of podcasts, In Search of Lost Broadway, is to try to rediscover big hit Broadway musicals from the past, which today are almost entirely unknown to us and forgotten.
This week, we explore several high-profile reincarnations ...
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January 17, 2026 • 47 mins
Because this is a Broadway history podcast, I don’t usually comment on recently opened productions, since we can’t know yet whether they will be historically significant. The exceptions, of course, are major revivals of Broadway musicals from the past. And since I’ve been around for a while and had the opportunity to see the original 1986 London production of Chess, which ran for three years, as well as the 1988 B...
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January 9, 2026 • 54 mins
On this week’s Broadway Nation podcast, Albert Evans and I once again go “In Search of Lost Broadway,” as part of our occasional podcast series in which we try to rediscover significant hit Broadway musicals from the past that today are almost entirely unknown and forgotten.
This is the third episode in which we go in search of the 1934 smash hit bio-jukebox-musical, The Great Waltz — one of the longest-run...
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December 31, 2025 • 41 mins
This is the second of two special holiday 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-Russ...
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December 24, 2025 • 34 mins
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 in...
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December 10, 2025 • 50 mins
This week Albert Evans joins me once again as we go “In Search of Lost Broadway.” Specifically, the 1934 smash-hit musical The Great Waltz, conceived, directed, and lighted by Hassard. Short, with a book
by Moss Hart, choreography by Albertina Rasch, based on the Viennese operetta and London hit, Waltzes From Vienna with English lyrics by Desmond Carter, and featuring the music of both Johann Strausses, I and II.
If yo...
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