The historian and New York University professor Laurence Maslon discusses his new book Broadway to Main Street: How Show Tunes Enchanted America (Oxford University Press, 2018), with Joseph Planta.

Broadway to Main Street: How Show Tunes Enchanted America by Laurence Maslon (Oxford University Press, 2018). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Broadway to Main Street

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

A book I had found fascinating to read and difficult to put down is Broadway to Main Street: How Show Tunes Enchanted America. It’s a terrific sketch of how popular music was influenced by the music of the American Musical Theater, and how from New York’s theatre district they made their way to living rooms across the United States. Thanks to albums of original cast recordings, covers by popular vocalists of the era, through to television appearances in the middle to late twentieth century, show music became tremendously popular and ubiquitous. It competed against the popular music of the era, be it Elvis or later the Beatles, and even today it remains popular thanks to Glee, as well as the popularity of the cast recordings of shows like the Book of Mormon, Hamilton, and Dear Evan Hansen. The book features new interviews with Stephen Schwartz, Harold Prince, Sheldon Harnick, and Steve Lawrence, as well as a surfeit of prominent record producers and critics. Laurence Maslon is the book’s author, and he joins me now. I’ll get him to reflect on how Broadway has underscored a lot of American life, as well as how it’s had impact on show business writ large, and American culture. Laurence Maslon is an arts professor, and Associate Chair of the Graduate Acting Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is the author of several books on the theatre including the companion volume to the PBS series Broadway: The American Musical (with Michael Kantor), as well he edited the Library of America’s two-volume set American Musicals (1927-1969). He is also the host and producer of the weekly radio program and podcast Broadway to Main Street. It’s a good show in which a lot of the music referenced in the book is played. This new book is published by Oxford University Press. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, in New York City, Laurence Maslon; Professor Maslon, good morning.

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