November 7, 2025 • 10 mins
Powerful storytelling, breathtaking music, rare and iconic archival film and images, unforgettable characters, and meticulously researched history all come together in AMERICAN HEART IN WWI: A CARNEGIE HALL TRIBUTE, a panoramic musical and visual account that brings America’s World War I story to life. Created, written and narrated by historian John Monsky and directed for the stage by Tony Award winner Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening), this show is a tribute to those who fought and those they left behind.Using F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby as a framework, which marked its 100th year since publication this year, Monsky guides the audience from the war’s origins through its harrowing climax, as seen through the wartime experiences of Fitzgerald’s fictional veterans Jay Gatsby and Nick Carraway, as well as five real-life figures from the war: soldier and music pioneer James Reese Europe, a civil rights trailblazer and Harlem Hellfighter; Vera Brittain, an Oxford student and young nurse who loses everything in the war; Charles Whittlesey, a shy New York lawyer who leads a melting pot of soldiers trapped under fire in the single biggest battle in American history; combat pilot Quentin Roosevelt, son of President Theodore Roosevelt, in love with debutante and future philanthropist Flora Payne Whitney.Filmed at Carnegie Hall in April 2025 by the Academy Award-winning RadicalMedia, this living documentary features the 60-piece Orchestra of St. Luke’s and a stellar cast — Adam Chanler-Berat (Next to Normal), Nicholas Christopher (Hamilton, Chess), Micaela Diamond (Parade), Gracie McGraw (BABE) and Diego Andres Rodriguez (Sunset Boulevard, Evita).John Monsky is the creator, writer, and narrator of the American History Unbound series. His historical productions premiere annually as part of the Carnegie Hall Presents series. Meticulously researched, Monsky’s works include 60-piece orchestras, leading Broadway vocalists, archival photography and film, and rare flags drawn from his nationally recognized collection.His most notable productions include We Chose to Go to the Moon, The Eyes of the World: From D-Day to VE Day and The Great War & The Great Gatsby (now titled American Heart in WWI: A Carnegie Hall Tribute).
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey Wanta, thank you for supporting all of my podcasts,
all seventeen of them, and now they are centrally located.
You don't have to go to a digital platform going
what did he say? Just go to Aero dot net,
a R r oe dot net and enjoy. Thank you
so much for all your love and support.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Ah, nice to be with you, Aero.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
John. How are you doing today, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I am great.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
I really am so blown away by what you have
done with American Heart World War One, a Carnegie Hall tribute,
because my grandfather fought in World War One, my father
in World War Two, and they always told me, do
not forget, do not forget, do not forget, and you
are serving as an ambassador of saying do not forget.
We're going forward with this and there's something you're going
(00:43):
to learn as well as enjoy.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Well, thank you. That's what we wanted to accomplish.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
And there have been so many families of veterrends that
have come up to me after seeing this lie and
saying that I need to do that, and it's a
thrill to put it on PBS for them.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
The music, the lights, the storyline, I mean, I can't
imagine what you went through in order to bring all
of this together. And that's the kind of maybe it's
just a producer inside of me. I want to be
that guy that sees the roady set up the stage.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
It's quite a cake that rises because you spend a
couple of years working on the script. Then I turned
to Ian Weinberger, who spent ten years at Hamilton now
working on Chess, a Tony Award winning director Michael Mayer,
and I sit down with them, and then John Kaman,
(01:43):
who won the Oscar for Summer Result, and we sit
there and try to bring this story to an emotional
well spring. Because your stories, when you feel it in
the heart.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, but you know they'll be being out there in
that live audience. Those people were probably having those emotions
before it even began, And because I know that I did,
I got more excited about seeing it. And before it
even started. I'm going to my God, I want my
dad to be here with me right now, because this
is just something that I know he would really thoroughly enjoy, love.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
For him to see.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
If the World War II production is now streaming on PBS,
but this is the World War One and this production
willingness of the heart.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
It's core to the American story.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, so now what led to the great Gatsby kind
of a connection, because I thought right away, I'm going, oh,
that's class, that is upper class.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
You have my attention at hello.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
The Gatsby.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
I knew that I wanted to do World War One
some of the for the same reasons that you know,
veterans and family members. But I wanted to connect Americans
to it, to find a portal in.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
And I knew that Gatsby Nick was a vet.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
The narrator, Gatsby's a vet, So I knew that Gatsby
would be a way to bring audiences in and create
a relevant experience. What I didn't realize was how consumed
Fitzgerald was with World War One.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Two years in the army.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
He didn't get shipped overseas, but he was fascinated by it,
walk the battlefields.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
It was very core to him, and it runs through
the book.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
And as this story, part of the climax is Charles
Whittlesey in the Argonne Force, still the greatest battle.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
In American history.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
And if you read the end of Gatsby, you'll realize
that Catsby's war record is modeled on short, Charles Mittlesey.
So it all started to come together, and then something
came out of this because yes, this is a story
about democracy. Yes this is a story about our veterans.
But in Gatsby, you remember the opening thing he had,
(03:56):
he said, Fitzgerald says, Gatsby had an extraordinary gift for hope.
And that's what you see in World War One. These
Americans that go over to repay Lofayette a debt for
helping us find democracy.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
And they're there to help.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
And the thing that always grips me is at the
end of World War One, the United States didn't take an.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Alnce A territory.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
All it got was nine lisas for American Cemetery.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Please do not move. There's more with John Monsky coming
up next. American Heart World War One A Carnegie Hall Tribute.
We are back with John Monsky. You do realize that
at the end of World War One, that was the
Silent generation. That's where it started. That's where even my
mother grew up in that era where everybody was so quiet.
(04:44):
And I think I'm so touched by American Heart World
War One A Carnegie Hall Tribute, because you've given me
sound from that silent generation. Do you know what I mean?
I mean, because they did not want to talk about it.
You're giving us something to hold on to.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And that's one reason I think you're a spot on
about that. That's one reason I focused on five real people.
So instead of looking at this from a global sort
of level, you get right into the heart of it.
Charles Whittlesey, you know this thirty three year old guy
leading this battalion who went to Williams and Harvard Law
(05:22):
School because he couldn't think of what he wanted to do.
And then he's thrust in the middle of the Argonne
Forest and Quinton Roosevelt, he's nineteen fifth son of the President,
and he's over there flying airplanes. Nobody knew how to
fly the airplanes, let alone fight with them. And then
this incredible guy, James Rees Europe, this jazz musician from
(05:45):
New York City that finds himself in the trenches and
they have him leave the.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Band over there, but he fights too.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
But you know, there's that wonderful moment in the production
when James Rees Europe lands in France and he plays
the French national anthem and jazz.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
So you be all that story and when they come
back you a lot. It all comes together in the
last segment when the figures that survive come back and
you have that amazing moment of the first Veteran's day
where they bring the unknown soldier over from France lies
(06:26):
in the state in the Capitol rotunda the first time
a common boy lies in the Capitol rotunda and you
see the gold star mothers marching behind the coffin to
the tomb of the unknown soldier. It breaks your heart
and they place her some corda and a.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Long long trail.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
The music and the story just merge together and it's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I realized it's available on PBS, and God love PBS
for doing what PBS is so known for. But will
you ever put this on a traveling stage to come
to Charlotte, to the Bloomenthal Performing Arts Center, to go
to New York, to go to Seattle, Because I mean
to me, this is like the beginning of a brand
new journey.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Well, I will see how the audience is a pps
like it. It should be done. I went to Jacksonville recently.
It was heartwarming. We had veterans of this. This is
World War two with a six triple eight all female,
black and Latina Italian.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Unit.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
There those family members with my next door neighbor who
landed at Omaha Beach, his family was there. It was
just you could feel the whole town responding. And I
went to New Orleans. I've been to Boston. I hope
to do that someday. My first focus was to get
(07:57):
at least get people to taste it in the widest audio,
and I wasn't even PBS is such a.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Great place for this, but at I wasn't initially focused
on that.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
But they came up to me and said, look here,
there's only three thousand people in Carnegie Hall.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Now I thought that was a lot. I grew up
in Jacksonville, FLOIDA. Ten people was a lot, but you know,
I thought that was a lot. But they said, no,
you got to get this on PBS.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
And a lot of Americans stepped up Ken Griffin, who
does a lot with American history, and they said do it.
And so we shot this with ten cameras in Carnegie
on the very stage that James Rees Europe performed before
he left for World War One. And there's something special
(08:44):
about being in Carnegie Hall. That's hard to communicate. But
I think when you see this through the lens of
those ten cameras and you see both the balconies and
the audience and the choir. We put the choir in
the balconies on the left and the right, it really
moves you.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Wow, You've got to come back to this show anytime
in the future. The door is always going to be open, John,
because I love where your passion is and I love
your outreach.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
I hope I can come back. I want to talk
about your Was it your grandfather in World War One?
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Yes? It was, Yeah, Yep, yep it was.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
He lost his ability to walk, and so I had
a grandfather that was on crutches every day. But yet
to hear him sit down and on his bedside and
talk about different things is something that I'll never ever forget.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
I want to hear all about that. I want to
come back here. What unit he was in? Ian Weinberger,
who's a conductor in this production, his grandfather lost his
leg yep, in the.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Hurtcan forest.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
So every time I get on the stage, there's some
emotional vibrations going on. And what a chance honor of veterans.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Wow, Well, you be brilliant today.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Okay, sir, all right, thank you
Hey Wanta, thank you for supporting all of my podcasts,
all seventeen of them, and now they are centrally located.
You don't have to go to a digital platform going
what did he say? Just go to Aero dot net,
a R r oe dot net and enjoy. Thank you
so much for all your love and support.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Ah, nice to be with you, Aero.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
John. How are you doing today, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
I am great.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
I really am so blown away by what you have
done with American Heart World War One, a Carnegie Hall tribute,
because my grandfather fought in World War One, my father
in World War Two, and they always told me, do
not forget, do not forget, do not forget, and you
are serving as an ambassador of saying do not forget.
We're going forward with this and there's something you're going
(00:43):
to learn as well as enjoy.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Well, thank you. That's what we wanted to accomplish.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
And there have been so many families of veterrends that
have come up to me after seeing this lie and
saying that I need to do that, and it's a
thrill to put it on PBS for them.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
The music, the lights, the storyline, I mean, I can't
imagine what you went through in order to bring all
of this together. And that's the kind of maybe it's
just a producer inside of me. I want to be
that guy that sees the roady set up the stage.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
It's quite a cake that rises because you spend a
couple of years working on the script. Then I turned
to Ian Weinberger, who spent ten years at Hamilton now
working on Chess, a Tony Award winning director Michael Mayer,
and I sit down with them, and then John Kaman,
(01:43):
who won the Oscar for Summer Result, and we sit
there and try to bring this story to an emotional
well spring. Because your stories, when you feel it in
the heart.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, but you know they'll be being out there in
that live audience. Those people were probably having those emotions
before it even began, And because I know that I did,
I got more excited about seeing it. And before it
even started. I'm going to my God, I want my
dad to be here with me right now, because this
is just something that I know he would really thoroughly enjoy, love.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
For him to see.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
If the World War II production is now streaming on PBS,
but this is the World War One and this production
willingness of the heart.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
It's core to the American story.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, so now what led to the great Gatsby kind
of a connection, because I thought right away, I'm going, oh,
that's class, that is upper class.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
You have my attention at hello.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
The Gatsby.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
I knew that I wanted to do World War One
some of the for the same reasons that you know,
veterans and family members. But I wanted to connect Americans
to it, to find a portal in.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
And I knew that Gatsby Nick was a vet.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
The narrator, Gatsby's a vet, So I knew that Gatsby
would be a way to bring audiences in and create
a relevant experience. What I didn't realize was how consumed
Fitzgerald was with World War One.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Two years in the army.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
He didn't get shipped overseas, but he was fascinated by it,
walk the battlefields.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
It was very core to him, and it runs through
the book.
Speaker 4 (03:28):
And as this story, part of the climax is Charles
Whittlesey in the Argonne Force, still the greatest battle.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
In American history.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
And if you read the end of Gatsby, you'll realize
that Catsby's war record is modeled on short, Charles Mittlesey.
So it all started to come together, and then something
came out of this because yes, this is a story
about democracy. Yes this is a story about our veterans.
But in Gatsby, you remember the opening thing he had,
(03:56):
he said, Fitzgerald says, Gatsby had an extraordinary gift for hope.
And that's what you see in World War One. These
Americans that go over to repay Lofayette a debt for
helping us find democracy.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
And they're there to help.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
And the thing that always grips me is at the
end of World War One, the United States didn't take an.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Alnce A territory.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
All it got was nine lisas for American Cemetery.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Please do not move. There's more with John Monsky coming
up next. American Heart World War One A Carnegie Hall Tribute.
We are back with John Monsky. You do realize that
at the end of World War One, that was the
Silent generation. That's where it started. That's where even my
mother grew up in that era where everybody was so quiet.
(04:44):
And I think I'm so touched by American Heart World
War One A Carnegie Hall Tribute, because you've given me
sound from that silent generation. Do you know what I mean?
I mean, because they did not want to talk about it.
You're giving us something to hold on to.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And that's one reason I think you're a spot on
about that. That's one reason I focused on five real people.
So instead of looking at this from a global sort
of level, you get right into the heart of it.
Charles Whittlesey, you know this thirty three year old guy
leading this battalion who went to Williams and Harvard Law
(05:22):
School because he couldn't think of what he wanted to do.
And then he's thrust in the middle of the Argonne
Forest and Quinton Roosevelt, he's nineteen fifth son of the President,
and he's over there flying airplanes. Nobody knew how to
fly the airplanes, let alone fight with them. And then
this incredible guy, James Rees Europe, this jazz musician from
(05:45):
New York City that finds himself in the trenches and
they have him leave the.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Band over there, but he fights too.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
But you know, there's that wonderful moment in the production
when James Rees Europe lands in France and he plays
the French national anthem and jazz.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
So you be all that story and when they come
back you a lot. It all comes together in the
last segment when the figures that survive come back and
you have that amazing moment of the first Veteran's day
where they bring the unknown soldier over from France lies
(06:26):
in the state in the Capitol rotunda the first time
a common boy lies in the Capitol rotunda and you
see the gold star mothers marching behind the coffin to
the tomb of the unknown soldier. It breaks your heart
and they place her some corda and a.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Long long trail.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
The music and the story just merge together and it's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I realized it's available on PBS, and God love PBS
for doing what PBS is so known for. But will
you ever put this on a traveling stage to come
to Charlotte, to the Bloomenthal Performing Arts Center, to go
to New York, to go to Seattle, Because I mean
to me, this is like the beginning of a brand
new journey.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Well, I will see how the audience is a pps
like it. It should be done. I went to Jacksonville recently.
It was heartwarming. We had veterans of this. This is
World War two with a six triple eight all female,
black and Latina Italian.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Unit.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
There those family members with my next door neighbor who
landed at Omaha Beach, his family was there. It was
just you could feel the whole town responding. And I
went to New Orleans. I've been to Boston. I hope
to do that someday. My first focus was to get
(07:57):
at least get people to taste it in the widest audio,
and I wasn't even PBS is such a.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Great place for this, but at I wasn't initially focused
on that.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
But they came up to me and said, look here,
there's only three thousand people in Carnegie Hall.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Now I thought that was a lot. I grew up
in Jacksonville, FLOIDA. Ten people was a lot, but you know,
I thought that was a lot. But they said, no,
you got to get this on PBS.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
And a lot of Americans stepped up Ken Griffin, who
does a lot with American history, and they said do it.
And so we shot this with ten cameras in Carnegie
on the very stage that James Rees Europe performed before
he left for World War One. And there's something special
(08:44):
about being in Carnegie Hall. That's hard to communicate. But
I think when you see this through the lens of
those ten cameras and you see both the balconies and
the audience and the choir. We put the choir in
the balconies on the left and the right, it really
moves you.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Wow, You've got to come back to this show anytime
in the future. The door is always going to be open, John,
because I love where your passion is and I love
your outreach.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
I hope I can come back. I want to talk
about your Was it your grandfather in World War One?
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Yes? It was, Yeah, Yep, yep it was.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
He lost his ability to walk, and so I had
a grandfather that was on crutches every day. But yet
to hear him sit down and on his bedside and
talk about different things is something that I'll never ever forget.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
I want to hear all about that. I want to
come back here. What unit he was in? Ian Weinberger,
who's a conductor in this production, his grandfather lost his
leg yep, in the.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Hurtcan forest.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
So every time I get on the stage, there's some
emotional vibrations going on. And what a chance honor of veterans.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Wow, Well, you be brilliant today.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Okay, sir, all right, thank you
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