BROADWAY NATION

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

Encore Episode: My Friend Sandy, part 2 — The Boy Friend, London Theatre and Gay Culture

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 Phillips shared with us...
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Encore Episode: SANDY WILSON’S THE BOY FRIEND, LONDON THEATRE AND GAY CULTURE.

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 when you could be sent to prison for...
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Encore Episode: Round in Circles, part 2

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 Liliom into a musical.   This w...
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Encore Episode: Round in Circles — The Story of Rodgers & Hammerstein's CAROUSEL, part 1

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 discoveries, and new insigh...
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Ep 16: The Golden Age of Broadway, Part 2

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 producers, including...
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Ep 201: More Feminist Approaches in Musical Theatre

May 3, 2026 • 45 mins
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Ep 200: Feminist Approaches to Musical Theatre

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 Theater and Am...
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Ep 199: MARC SHAIMAN ON BROADWAY

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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Ep 10: The Great Depression & The Silver Age of Broadway, Part 2

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 their ...
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Ep 198: FIVE DECADES OF SHOW BIZ with MARC SHAIMAN

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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Ep 197: Matching Minds With Sondheim with author Barry Joseph

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 them, b...
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Ep 196 The Last Waltz — In Search of Lost Broadway, part 4

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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Ep 195: 40 Years of CHESS

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 Broadway production...
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Ep 194: The Great Waltz on Radio & TV

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-running shows of the 1930s....
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Irving Berlin, Bing Crosby and the Story of "White Christmas," America's Most Popular Song, part 2

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-Russian immigrant s...
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Encore Episode: The Story Behind the Song, WHITE CHRISTMAS

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 inventi...
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Ep 193: BY STRAUSS! In Search of THE GREAT WALTZ, part 2

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 you missed the...
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A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM BROADWAY NATION!

December 7, 2025 • 2 mins
You are invited to join me on December 11 at 5:00 PM at The Museum of Broadway where Tony and Olivier Award-winning lyricist , David Zippel, will be interview me about my new book, Broadway Nation: How Immigrant, Jewish, Queer, and Black Artists Invented the Broadway Musical. Reserve your FREE seats now at https://www.themuseumofbroadway.com/calendar Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Ep 192: IN SEARCH OF LOST BROADWAY — THE GREAT WALTZ

November 28, 2025 • 54 mins
This is the second in our occasional series of episodes that I'm calling "In Search of Lost Broadway,” in which my longtime  colleague Albert Evans and I try to unearth and rediscover musicals that were very significant and influential Broadway hits in their day but now have disappeared from almost all discussion of Broadway's past and receive only the briefest mentions in the history books. Today, we focus on a big hit musical o...
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Encore Episode: MY FIRST SONDHEIM

November 21, 2025 • 37 mins
This episode was recorded in 2021 just five days after it was announced that Stephen Sondheim had died and as it happened my friend, colleague and frequent co-host and contributor to Broadway Nation, Albert Evans, was spending the Thanksgiving weekend with me, and so we were together when this news began to break and during the incredible reaction and response this loss over the days that followed. The coverage of Sondheim’s life ...
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