Theater History and Mysteries

The deepest dives you can find anywhere into the history and backstory of the great musical productions. Dense content...for people who aren't. And, I’ll never miss an opportunity to pursue any mystery, bizarre coincidence, improbable event, or supernatural suggestion along the way because, in the words of Dirk Gentley, it is all connected. You can contact me directly at theaterhistorypodcast@gmail.com Released every other Tuesday. Music by Jon Bruschke and Andrew Howat, arranged, performed, and recorded by Andrew Howat. Check out the interview on Musical Theater Radio, episode 404: https://www.musicaltheatreradio.com/podcast

Theater History and Mysteries is a arts podcast hosted by Dr. Jon Bruschke, PhD, with 49 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Dr. Jon Bruschke, PhD hosts Theater History and Mysteries, a arts show with 49 episodes published.

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  Theater History and Mysteries

  Why Alexander Hamilton is responsible for the US Constitution (Hamilton 12 of 12, episode 49)

  Aug 18, 20261h 2m

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  Episode #48

  Hamilton and Hip Hop -- is it the right musical style for a show about the founder of the Treasury? (Hamilton 11 of 12, episode 48)

  Aug 4, 20261h 13mS1

  Send us Fan Mail Lin Manuel Miranda’s mega hit, the musical Hamilton, has got hiphop in it. Ya can’t miss that, it’s what makes it distinctive, most Broadway shows don’t even come close to trying to do it. Loren Kajikawa put it this way: “Hamilton's engagement with hip hop's history, culture, and aesthetics forms an undeniable part of the musical's appeal. Hamilton deserves to be called a "hip hop musical" But that raises some questions…some of the traditional themes of hip hop music aren’t exactly…empowering for women. Or anyone. There’s also a fair tendency to celebrate violence, especially gun violence. Is that inherently a part of the hiphop genre, or a sideshow, or is it all merely a metaphor, or is it just true of some songs and not others, or what? There’s clearly a cultural element to hiphop…but what is it? Where did hiphop come from, and what does it mean? And when all those questions are answered it all adds up to one big question for the show Hamiton: What does using the hiphop style of music add, take away, confound, or enhance about the show? Does it make the show work, detract from it, or not really matter at all? And…when you listen really closely…IS most of the music really hiphop? Get your gin, get your juice, sit back, and let’s get our music history on in this episode of THM. Support the show

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  Theater History and Mysteries

  Lin Manuel Miranda and the making of Hamilton. (Hamilton 10 of 12, episode 47)

  Jul 21, 20261h 24m

  Send us Fan Mail There are 2 questions at the heart of hamilton -- what makes the show work, and what makes Lin-Manuel MIranda tick. Those might be two sides of the same coin. Along the way there are some important choices – how women are portrayed, how slavery is handled, what’s up with multiracial casting. Lin-Manuel MIranda wanted the show to be a story about America then told by America now – and America now has some issues going on. Race is a thing. Charlottesville saw 6,000 white nationalists openly marching. The death of George Floyd. ICE raids, with the Supreme Court ruling that racial profiling in ICE raids is constitutional, and ruling that protections long ingrained in the voting rights act are no longer necessary. The Trump administration is waging war on DEI, and removing the names of highly qualified people of color from major historical sites. In the Netherlands, two panels depicting black soliders liberating cities after WW2 have been taken down; there are other and even more egregious examples closer to home at the Arlington cemetery. Women’s rights are an issue; abortion bans are proliferating and intrude deeply into basic health care, the right to vote itself is being called into question with proposed legislation that would massively reduce the ability of women to vote in the first place, and in a way that much more drastically impacts men than women. Representation in entertainment is an issue. 70% of the Broadway audience is white, as are the majority of the performers. Racial exclusion and the marginalization of women are not solved problems, and our current political climate brings all of that more sharply into focus. Into all of this walks the musical Hamilton and the person of Lin-Manuel MIranda. He'll have to make choices about all of it – race, gender, music, colonialism, representation, Broadway itself, and he will get hit on all sides. So far, we have had dedicated episodes to each of these topics, but today we’ll look at the guy, Lin-Manuel MIranda, what he put into the show, what worked, and how his celebrity has spilled into other politics. Are the haters right? Did his efforts at creating new spaces and new ideas result in a net step backwards? Is he a hiphop sellout, is he another rich kid who made good on the back of a family fortune while capitalizing on the ethos of the streets? Those are some heavy topics, but Lin-Manuel MIranda didn’t shy away from them. Alexander Hamilton didn’t shy away from them either. And neither will we. Let’s sort ‘me all out together on this episode of THM. Support the show

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  Theater History and Mysteries

  The women of Hamilton. (Hamilton 9 of 12, episode 46)

  Jul 7, 20261h 17m

  Send us Fan Mail Philippa Soo plays the role of Eliza in the Broadway mega-hit Hamilton . And I gotta say, the more you read about Phillipa Soo the more that you like her. She’s talented, she’s been in a bunch of stuff, she adopted a dog on her birthday, got to throw out a first pitch at Yankee stadium. All accounts, she’s a fierce performer on the stage and a compassionate human off of it. One very cool connection is this: She formed the Eliza Project, named after her character in Hamilton, and the purpose of that is to support the Grahman Windham organization. They have 19 centers that engage in community enrichment; the point is to transform communities as a way of preventing all the problems before they need treatment. Provide services to children, youth, and families facing “some of life’s most difficult obstacles.” The organization can trace its history 220 years back in it original incantation as the Orphan Asylum Society of the City of New York, an orphanage in Greenwich Village. THe founders were Isabella Graham, Joanna Behune, Sara Hoffman and…Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton. Clearly, Phillipa Soo finds a connection with the character she plays, and part of that connection is clearly gender. Both are women in Hamilton. Today, we’ll review the women in Hamilton and learn more about who they are in the show, how they are in history, and get to the inevitable question of whether their portrayal in the show is a net step forward, or a net step back. Support the show

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  Theater History and Mysteries

  Hamilton -- Is it cool for actors of color to play old white guys? The case FOR multiracial casting. (Hamilton 8 of 12, episode 45)

  Jun 23, 20261h 12m

  Send us Fan Mail Lin-Manuel Miranda was not the first person to pursue multi-racial casting to make a political point. Heather S. Nathans of Tufts university shares the history: “On March 5, 1858, around the first anniversary of the Dred Scott decision and on the anniversary of the Boston Massacre, African American abolitionist William Cooper Nell re-staged the massacre as a tableau vivant at Boston’s Faneuil Hall. Nell did it to commemorate the Scott decision and to protest the recent ruling by local Boston authorities who refused to declare Crispus Attucks the first victim of the Revolution. Nell’s restaging of the massacre used all black performers to protest their systematic erasure from the history of the Revolution. It also forecast a day when actors of color might rise up and claim their true rights and privileges.” Nathans makes a direct connection to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton; the quote continues: “In that, Nell resembles Miranda, who has said that one of the reasons he became a playwright was because there were no parts for him. Both men literally and figuratively wrote themselves into the archive and the repertoire.” But, whereas Nell’s staging was all about slavery, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton was not. It was more about…Hamilton. And that might be the central question for Hamilton. By casting historically white people with actors of color, Miranda has put race front and center of the production about a founder. But, as we have explored in our past episodes, the show doesn’t entirely avoid race questions, but they are hardly a central point of the plot and, by design, no part of the character development. What happens when you make race a key feature of the casting but you then don’t take on central questions of race, including slavery. Does that work? Is it cool to play Geo Wash with a black man? Alex Ham with a Puerto Rican/NewYorikan? Does it make the show better or worse, and is it s net step forward for racial progress or not? Support the show

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