David Armstrong’s absorbing overview of “how Immigrant, Jewish, Queer and Black artists invented the Broadway Musical” is guaranteed to introduce you to names in Musical Theatre history you weren’t aware of.
In a breakneck, but fascinating, look at Broadway from the later years of the 19th century up to the present day, Armstrong highlights trends, shows, and people who contributed to the Great White Way.
The book promises to be “five books in one” adding women to its list of marginalised voices in Broadway history. A coding system of highlighting each section by letter(s) allows the reader to progress through the influence of, for example, Queer artists on American culture.
It’s a groundbreaking way of addressing the subject, and each section yields up a new little nugget of gold. It is a narrative that brings all these influences together while allowing each individual contribution its moment to shine.
Broadway Nation is an extremely readable book whether you scan through sections or read it cover to cover. It doesn’t assume prior knowledge of any particular period in Broadway’s history, yet doesn’t talk down to those enthusiasts who know the basics.
Character sketches, show successes (and flops), and off-stage dramas pepper the narrative, highlighting moments of adversity alongside a deep sense of celebration. Every musical fan will love this absolutely tip-top, toe-tapping, tome.
It is hard to find a show, trend, composer or gimmick that isn’t included here, and each are placed in context of the work that was going on around them. Armstrong adds enough of his personal opinions to make Broadway Nation feel like a meeting with a chatty friend over coffee.
Copious notes, a useful biography, and several black and white photographs give life to the text, and an interesting feature midway through the book traces the direct progression from Otto Harbach to Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Quoting just a few sections will whet your appetite. ‘Broadway’s Drag Superstars’, ‘The Harlem Renaissance’, ‘Broadway Goes Avant-Garde’, ‘The Unexpected Return of the Operetta’.
Broadway Nation is one of the best books I have read on musical theatre: timely, honest, lively, and full of love in paying tribute to those who created the musical as we understand it today.
Broadway Nation is by David Armstrong and published by Methuen Drama.