This episode is adapted from a section of my new upcoming book, Broadway Nation — How Immigrant, Jewish, Queer, and Black Artists Invented the Broadway Musical, which will be released on July 24 (and can be preordered now everywhere books are sold.)
In 1919, two gifted young Queer theater artists — Hassard
Short and John Murray Anderson —both made their Broadway directing debuts and quickly established themselves as significant forces in the development of the Broadway musical. Even though their names and their work are seldom remembered or acknowledged today, In my view they are, without a doubt, two of the principal inventors of the singular art and craft of Broadway musical staging.
Working as competitive colleagues and rivals, they were among the very first to discover and reveal the tremendous impact that dynamic musical staging can provide to a Broadway musical and among the very first to demonstrate how staging and choreography can often be of equal importance to a show’s book, music, and lyrics.
Between them, John Murray Anderson and Hassard Short staged more than 70 Broadway musicals, and in the process forged a path that a long line of remarkable (and predominantly gay) directors and choreographers have followed right up to today, including this past week’s Tony Award-nominees and Tony winners. Whether they know it or not, they all stand on the shoulders of these forgotten giants, Hassard Short and John Murray Anderson.
Today, I am honored to share at least a small piece of their story.
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