Broadway history, craft, and conversation.
ON BROADWAY treats Broadway, Off-Broadway, and the London stage as a living archive. Stuart Brown speaks with writers, performers, designers, and collection specialists about new musicals, theater books, productions, and the backstage decisions that shape what audiences hear and remember.
PRESS PLAY
ON BROADWAY is an interview-driven theater show with a strong sense of stage history and an evident affection for musical theater craft. Stuart Brown’s conversations tend to begin with a careful introduction, then open into patient, specific follow-up questions. The show does not rush. It gives guests room to explain how a musical, book, archive, adaptation, or career actually works. Recent episodes range from new writing to old collections, and that range is part of the appeal. Tom James McGrath and Amy Claire Tasker discuss Rising after revisiting The Queen Is Mad and its story of Joanna of Castile. Nicholas Brown Casitas and Kate Miller connect The Sound of Music tour to Library of Congress materials and the labor of preserving musical theater collections. Amnon Kabatchnik brings Broadway crime plays into view through Bloody Broadway and its focus on menace, murder, and mystery. Frank Verlizzo’s episode begins with theater poster work, then turns toward his detective novel Scenery of the Crime. Clea Blackhurst describes Just Desserts as a musical bake-off with a point system, recognizable personalities, and a friendly comic shape. Henry H. Sapoznik’s conversation follows Yiddish popular culture into theater, music, restaurants, journalism, and New York memory. David Armstrong’s episode places the Broadway musical inside immigrant, Jewish, queer, and Black artistic histories. Rupert Holmes talks through adapting and rearranging Pirates, the Penzance Musical, explaining how familiar material can take on a new theatrical feel. The show’s strength is its appetite for process. It treats Broadway not only as performance, but as writing, research, design, preservation, adaptation, and cultural inheritance. That makes it especially useful for listeners who like names, dates, repertory, and the backstage logic behind public-facing work. It is warm, informed, and deliberately paced.
Made for: For musical theater listeners who enjoy interviews with artists, authors, designers, performers, and archivists. It especially suits people who want production context, stage history, and creative-process detail.
What sets it apart: ON BROADWAY connects current stage work with archives, books, design, adaptation, and cultural history. Its interviews favor careful context and practical examples over quick reactions.
Join host Stuart Brown for music, interviews, and commentary. This podcast is a companion to ‘Sounds of Broadway’ - a 24/7 online music radio station featuring the best in Broadway, Off-Broadway, and the London stage. Visit BroadwayRadioPrograms.com.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Stuart Brown turns musical theater interviews into detailed accounts of how productions, adaptations and stage histories are made.
Stuart Brown treats musical theater as a working art, asking how songs, books, staging and cultural history move from idea to production. ON BROADWAY is built around interviews with people directly involved in that work, including writers, directors and authors, with Brown…
Cast albums rewrite movie musicals here, if your ideal backstage pass comes with footnotes.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A focused look at Yiddish theater, comic types, and the Broadway echoes that carried beyond the stage.
Stuart Brown's On Broadway conversation with Henry Sapochnik, author of The Tourist's Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City, keeps its strongest footing in the theater chapter.
Broadway history made concrete through albums, audience memory, and a plain-spoken case for the form.
Stuart Brown's On Broadway conversation with David Armstrong gives Broadway history a sturdy, material feel. Armstrong, author of Broadway Nation and a longtime figure at Seattle's Fifth Avenue Theater, moves from the role immigrant, Jewish, queer, and Black artists played in…
Rupert Holmes walks through the musical craft behind a reworked Pirates, the Penzance Musical.
On Broadway gives Rupert Holmes space to connect his family's affection for Gilbert and Sullivan with his work on Pirates, the Penzance Musical.
A measured, craft-focused conversation about Rising, Irish culture, and writing characters with a strong want.
Stuart Brown welcomes Tom James McGrath and Amy Claire Tasker back to discuss Rising, their new show after The Queen is Mad. The conversation first catches up with that earlier musical's Edinburgh Fringe run, then turns toward the pair's developing work on Rising and the kind of…
A Chorus Line becomes a study in keeping choreographic life intact inside a demanding theater space.
Rob Ruggiero's conversation with Stuart Brown opens on TheatreWorks Hartford, an intimate venue of fewer than 200 seats now entering its 40th anniversary season after growing from an underground operation into a respected Connecticut theater.
Kaitlin Prest blends personal reenactment and Gaza war testimony across serialized documentary seasons.
Stuart Brown welcomes Tom James McGrath and Amy Claire Tasker back to On Broadway to talk about Rising, their new show after The Queen is Mad.
Rob Ruggiero starts in Hartford.
This episode features an interview with theater journalist Elysa Gardner about her book 'Magic To Do,' which explores the 50-year history and legacy of the musical Pippin.
This episode features an interview with three-time Tony Award-winning director Jack O'Brien about his new book on directing and his experiences with theater personalities.
On Broadway host Stuart Brown and guest Sharon Kahn examine Charles Strouse’s career through Bye Bye Birdie, All-American, Golden Boy, It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman, Applause, Annie, and Charlie and Algernon.
Ethan Popp explains how his Tony-nominated work on The Lost Boys combines music supervision, co-arranging, co-orchestration, and immersive sound design.
This episode features an interview with composers Tom James McGrath and Amy Claire Tasker discussing their new Irish musical 'Rising' and providing updates on their previous show 'The Queen Is Mad'.
This episode features an interview with Library of Congress experts about their involvement with the national tour of The Sound of Music and a related display called Inside the Vault.
This episode features an interview with Amnon Kabatchnik about his new book 'Bloody Broadway', which explores plays of menace, murder, and mystery on Broadway from 1900 to 1930.
This episode features an interview with Frank Verlizzo, a graphic designer known for creating iconic Broadway posters, discussing his career and his detective novel 'Scenery of the Crime'.
This episode features an interview with actress Klea Blackhurst about her upcoming Off-Broadway musical 'Just Desserts', a charming baking competition show set at a county fair.
Stuart Brown welcomes Henry, then steers Henry's book on lost Yiddish New York City toward its theater chapter without losing the wider cultural story.
David Armstrong takes the long view.
Rupert Holmes calls it destiny.
Stewart Brown interviews Martin Fitzgibbon about his memoir 'Behind the Curtain: My Life and Rocky Horror', discussing his dual focus on personal life and his role as the original drummer in the iconic show.
This episode features an interview with Brian Stoll, an avid Broadway fan who shares his expertise on seeing Broadway shows on a budget, including tips for discounted tickets and his presentation 'Broadway on a Budget'.
This episode features an interview with theater journalist Robert Viagas about his book 'Good Morning, Olive' which explores ghost stories and hauntings in Broadway theaters.