Bernstein Meets Broadway: Collaborative Art in a Time of War (Broadway Legacies) - by Carol J. Oja
When Leonard Bernstein first arrived in New York City, he was an unknown artist working with other brilliant twentysomethings, notably Jerome Robbins, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green. By the end of the 1940s, these artists were world famous. Their collaborations defied artistic boundaries and subtly pushed a progressive political agenda, altering the landscape of musical theater, ballet, and nightclub comedy. In Bernstein Meets Broadway: Collaborative Art in a Time of War, award-winning author and scholar Carol J. Oja examines the early days of Bernstein's career during World War II, centering around the debut in 1944 of the Broadway musical On the Town and the ballet Fancy Free. As a composer and conductor, Bernstein experienced a meteoric rise to fame, thanks in no small part to his visionary colleagues. Together, they focused on urban contemporary life and popular culture, featuring as heroes the itinerant sailors who bore the brunt of military service. They were provocative both artistically and politically. In a time of race riots and Japanese internment camps, Bernstein and his collaborators featured African American performers and a Japanese American ballerina, staging a model of racial integration. Rather than accepting traditional distinctions between high and low art, Bernstein's music was wide-open, inspired by everything from opera and jazz to cartoons. Oja shapes a wide-ranging cultural history that captures a tumultuous moment in time. Bernstein Meets Broadway is an indispensable work for fans of Broadway musicals, dance, and American performance history.
Club44 Records has released Jim Caruso’s The Swing Set: Deluxe Edition – the urbane baritone’s smart and sophisticated romp through the Great American Songbook. Listen here!
Theater star and Nashville recording artist RACHEL POTTER – best known for appearances on Fox TV’s “The X Factor” and the Broadway musicals The Addams Family and Evita – has released her new album Stages. Listen here!
Club44 Records will release of Jim Caruso’s The Swing Set: Deluxe Edition. BroadwayWorld has your exclusive first listen to 'One More Minute' here! Learn more about the album.
Get an exclusive first listen to Rachel Potter singing a Waitress Medley from her upcoming album Stages! Learn more about the album and see how to download and stream.
The Drama Book Shop will present, in association with Jay Michaels Global Communications, author events designed to entertain and enlighten. Learn more and see how to attend.
GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS will release Legally Blonde: The Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording) on vinyl for the first time. Learn more and see how to purchase and stream the album!
Drama Book Shop will present a conversation with author Julie Gilbert about her acclaimed book, 'Giant Love,' (Pantheon) the compelling story of the writing of Edna Ferber's celebrated novel 'Giant'. Learn more!
Yusuf/Cat Stevens has announced his long-awaited memoir, Cat On The Road To Findout. Coming later this year, the new autobiography is an extraordinary soul-baring journey through the triumphs, trials, and transcendental quest of one of music’s most enigmatic figures of our time.
Cabaret Classics will release Toast of the Town, Volume 1, the new big band album from Boston-based vocalist Brian De Lorenzo, on CD and streaming and digital platforms in June. Learn more about the album here!
Following Jill Sobule's tragic passing last week, a new music video from her autobiographical musical F*ck 7th Grade has been shared by her representatives. Watch it here.
Jeffrey Seller has made the theatre that has changed my life. I will always remember being twelve years old and being obsessed with all that is Rent. This show changed the face of theatre. He did it again with Hamilton and In The Heights as well. His artistic blueprint is all over the DNA of Broadway. His new memoir 'Theatre Kid' is out and it is a must read for theatre fans and artists alike. Watch in this video!
Center Stage Records and Yellow Sound Label has released The 12 – A New Musical (Original Cast Recording). You can now learn more about the musical, and listen here!
The original cast recording of Broadway's Hamilton has become the first original cast album to hit 500 weeks on the Billboard 200. The album was originally released in September of 2015.
The Blues Brothers universe is returning, beginning with a brand new original graphic novel: The Blues Brothers: The Escape of Joliet Jake. Written by Stella Aykroyd, Luke Pisano, and James Werner, the graphic novel serves as a sequel to the 1980 film.
After announcing a robust new 16-LP box set in 2024, Harry Potter: The Complete Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Rhino now shares four individual Motion Picture Soundtrack LPs from the Harry Potter franchise.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a newly restored and remastered version of the movie will be unleashed in breathtaking 4K Ultra HD.
On December 2, 2025, Penguin Workshop will publish DOLLY PARTON’S BILLY THE KID DANCES HIS HEART OUT, the third standalone children’s picture book in Parton’s bestselling series featuring French bulldog, her god-dog, Billy the Kid.
In celebration of DRAG: The Musical’s dynamite Off-Broadway run at New World Stages, DRAG: The Musical LIVE (The Cast Recording) is now available. Listen to it here!
GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS has released the new EP from Tony Award winner and Grammy Award nominee Lena Hall, Songs from Your Friends & Neighbors. Listen here!
Gypsy: 2024 Broadway Cast Recording – starring six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald – will be released. BroadwayWorld has your exclusive first listen to “All I Need Is the Girl” performed by Kevin Csolak here!
Craft Latino will release the first-ever vinyl reissue of Strikes Back, the GRAMMY®-nominated 10th solo album from legendary singer Héctor “El Cantante” Lavoe.
Cynthia Erivo, who stars as Elphaba in the two-part movie adaptation of the Wicked musical, is set to narrate a new audiobook edition of the original 1995 novel.
Omnivore Recordings has announced that Vince Guaraldi’s Oh, Good Grief! will be getting a reissue released on CD and yellow vinyl on May 30. The album was originally released in May of 1968.
Theater star and Nashville recording artist RACHEL POTTER – best known for appearances on Fox TV’s “The X Factor” and the Broadway musicals The Addams Family and Evita – has released “The Animazement Trio.' Listen here!
Jeffrey Seller, the Tony Award-winning producer behind Hamilton, Rent, Avenue Q, and In the Heights is releasing his new memoir Theater Kid—and he's taking it on the road. Learn more about upcoming events.
Dolly Parton has announced the release of her upcoming book, STAR OF THE SHOW: My Life on Stage. A celebration of Dolly Parton’s iconic career as a performer, the book features entertaining personal stories alongside 350 full-color photographs.
In celebration of DRAG: The Musical’s dynamite off-Broadway run at New World Stages, the team behind the show will release ‘DRAG: The Musical LIVE (The Cast Recording)’ on April 25th.
The American Composers Orchestra (ACO) is set to release the world premiere recording of composer Huang Ruo and librettist David Henry Hwang’s moving and timely opera An American Soldier digitally via Platoon on Friday, May 23, 2025.
Theatre Communications Group will publish Stereophonic by David Adjmi, featuring original songs by Will Butler of Arcade Fire. Learn more about Stereophonic here!
To celebrate Record Store Day 2025, multi-platinum artist and songwriter Sam Smith will release a very special recording of their acclaimed BBC Proms performance from London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall on 2xLP vinyl on April 12th.