Gangsters and Gold Diggers: Old New York, the Jazz Age, and the Birth of Broadway - by Jerome Charyn
Once upon a time Broadway was just another street. In Gangsters & Gold Diggers, Jerome Charyn transports readers back to a swaggering, golden era in American life—the Roaring Twenties—when Broadway suddenly exploded into Broadway.
Damon Runyon was the first chronicler of the Big Street. He created the myth of Broadway, invented the "slanguage." The Ziegfeld Follies became its most important institution—everybody, including Zelda Fitzgerald, wanted to be a Follies Girl. Then came Lindy’s, a delicatessen and hangout for actors, bootleggers, singers, hustlers, chorus girls, and celebrities. Charyn looks at the men and women who helped make Broadway the most glamorous place on the planet, from Mae West to Fanny Brice, Legs Diamond to Irving Berlin, Louise Brooks to William Randolph Hearst, Scott Fitzgerald to Arnold Rothstein and the Gatsby-like gangster Owen Madden, and many more.
In lively, cinematic prose, Charyn captures Broadway’s vagabondage, outlaw culture, and self-mythologizing. He brings a rollicking, rough-and-tumble period in New York history to life—conjuring an intoxicating portrait of Jazz Age excess by examining the denizens of that greatest of all "staggering machine[s] of desire," the street known as Broadway.
Left on Tenth, the new play based on the bestselling memoir by Delia Ephron, is now available for purchase through Dramatists Play Service. Learn more here!
The cast recording has been released for Jo - The Little Women Musical, a new musical adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's iconic coming-of-age novel Little Women. Listen to the album here!
BroadwayWorld has your exclusive first listen to 'An Ode to Aunt March’s Urn' from the upcoming studio album Jo - The Little Women Musical. Learn more and listen here!
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.