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[0:12] David Armstrong: No need to remember when everything old is new again. Welcome to another episode of Broadway Nation, the podcast that tells the extraordinary story of how immigrants, Jews, queers, African Americans, and other outcasts invented the Broadway musical and how they changed America in the process. I'm David Armstrong, and I call this episode Crazy for Nostalgia, The Modern Era of Broadway Part 3. Get out your white suit, taps shoes and tails. Let's go backward when forward fails. And movie stars that thought were long dead. Now frame beside your bed.

[0:52] David Armstrong: On the last episode, we looked at the roots of the nostalgia craze of the 1970s, and how that mania for everything and anything related to the 1920s and 30s had started underground in the 1960s counterculture, youth rebellion, rock pop music worlds, and the off-off Broadway gay theater scene. And then in 1971, a smash-hit Broadway revival of the 1925 musical No No Nanette thrust the nostalgia craze into the mainstream. It should be noted, however, that most of the musicals that emerged in the late 1960s and early 70s were also influenced by that incipient underground nostalgia craze, even if overall their shows were decidedly modern.

[1:33] David Armstrong: The first four rock musicals, Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, and Two Gentlemen of Verona, all included new Tin Pan Alley style songs. The Tony Award-winning Best Musical Applause was based on one of those vintage films that had been rediscovered on television. And Strauss and Adams' score for the show includes a 1940s boogie woogie style song written specifically for its star Lauren Bacall, who was also back in the spotlight, at least in part because her classic old movies had also been rediscovered on television. And Stephen Sondheim's score for Company includes both an Andrews Sisters style trio and an extended vaudeville style song and dance number. So nostalgia was in the air, and then No No Nanette sent it into the stratosphere.

[2:59] David Armstrong: I recently acquired a copy of the February 19th, 1971 edition of Life magazine. The cover story is titled Everybody's Just Wild About Nostalgia, and 40 pages, fully half of the issue are devoted to the nostalgia craze. This includes a five-page article and photo spread covering what it calls the Art Deco Rage, eight pages of text and photos about America's vintage movie palaces, one page on the popularity of new recordings of old time radio shows, a five-page fashion spread, headlined Fashion Takes Its Cue from Old Time Movie Glamour, and which includes slinky halter topped gowns by the designer Halston that he calls movie star dresses. There's also six pages of interviews with four classic movie queens, Joan Blondell, Paulette Goddard, Betty Hutton, and Myrna Loy, including then and now photos and a two-page interview with Busby Berkeley.

[3:53] David Armstrong: And the center spread of the magazine is two pages of spectacular production photos under the headline Yes Yes, Nanette, a dazzling old musical just 45 years young. There's only one short paragraph of text, which reads The hottest ticket on Broadway is based on the unlikely combination of old show, old tunes, and some aging stars. But what that package does to an audience in the revival of Vincent Newman's 1925 musical No No Nanette should be bottled for future theatrical transfusions. In a production supervised by old-time movie showman Busby Berkeley, audiences cheer the first notes of T for Two and I Wanna Be Happy. Most nights there's a moment of sheer hysteria when Ruby Keeler appears. When she starts to tap dance, shouts of affection bounce through the theater like a superball, and time dissolves while she garners a new generation of fans.

[4:46] David Armstrong: Three months later, Time magazine had a cover story titled That Old Magic Relights Broadway. And they also included a snarky essay that begins by asking, How much more nostalgia can America take? And all of this was before the nostalgia craze expanded into the 1950s. Well oh well oh well almost exactly one year after the premiere of Nanette, the musical Grease opened on Broadway. The original show had started in Chicago and was very different in tone and content from the movie and most productions that you would see today. It was in no way family-friendly and in fact was rather aggressively raunchy. The original Grease reveled in the vulgarity of its ethnic working class characters. The show became wildly popular and would run for eight years on Broadway, eventually passing Fiddler to become the longest-running musical of all time until it was passed by A Chorus Line.

[6:02] David Armstrong: And Grease on Broadway started a 1950s wing of the nostalgia craze by inspiring both the movie American Grafiiti in 1973 and the TV show Happy Days. The 1978 movie of Grease cleaned up the material considerably, changing the location from gritty urban Chicago to sun-drenched Los Angeles. But even so, you can still hear some of the overtly sexual content of the original in the lyrics to songs such as Grease Lightning. Each Broadway revival of Grease has whitewashed and watered down the show even further until now the licensing company that handles it won't even allow theaters to produce the original version, but only a sanitized edition in which even the racy lyrics from the film have been purged of anything that's not appropriate for children.

[7:10] David Armstrong: Even so, I think the subversive underlying message of the show still comes through. Much like Hair, Grease was a product of the sexual revolution. Many people now criticize the show because they see it as portraying a young woman who changes everything about herself just to get a boy. But I would suggest that the author's true intent was to portray a young woman who was unhappy, scared, and unsure because she is socially uptight and sexually repressed. The happy ending comes when in the final sequence of the show, she becomes liberated to express her true self and her innate sexuality. After all, Rizzo is clearly presented as the moral center of the story.

[7:49] David Armstrong: And in the show's 11 o'clock spot, she points up her moral superiority to Sandy with the sex positive song, There Are Worse Things I Could Do. Rizzo is proud to be who and what she is. In the stage play, she sings this song directly to Sandy, who is profoundly changed by it. And just a few moments later, we see that she has let go of her square Sandra D persona and embraced her inner Rizzo. In other words, she learns to live, live, live. Getting Danny is just an added bonus of that transformation. That's why Grease ran eight years on Broadway and has become one of the most widely produced musicals of all time. That and the very catchy songs. Just don't tell the principal of the middle school that's producing it what it's really about.

[9:22] David Armstrong: The success of No No Nanette led directly to a 1973 revival of Irene, the smash hit musical that had opened in 1919 and become the longest running musical of its day. This time, producer Harry Rigby persuaded movie star Debbie Reynolds to make her Broadway debut as the plucky Irish immigrant girl who takes New York's high society by storm. And the original McCarthy and Tierney score was augmented with hit songs from their other shows, as well as a few very good new songs like this one by Wally Harper. Later in the run, movie star Jane Powell took over the title role.

[10:36] David Armstrong: And the success of Grease led directly to Over Here!, the 1974 musical in which the director, choreographer, and producers of Grease attempted to do for the 1940s what their previous musical had done for the 1950s. The story was about a singing sister act called the DePaul Sisters entertaining the troops stateside during World War II. The characters were clearly modeled after the Andrews Sisters, who were back in fashion both because of the rediscovery of their old movies, and most especially because in 1972, Bette Midler rose to stardom when she released a cover of their 1941 song Woogie Woogie Bugle Boy that became a top ten hit. Bette Midler became one of the brightest lights of the nostalgia craze with her inventive and canny repertoire of contemporary pop music and nostalgic songs and comedy from the past.

[11:25] David Armstrong: Even though it hadn't been written for them, the two surviving Andrews Sisters, Patty and Maxine, were actually enticed to star in Over Here.

[11:33] David Armstrong: And the Sherman Brothers of Disney fame provided a terrific set of brand new, very authentic-sounding big band era style songs for them to swing.

[11:43] ♪ Musical number: "Over Here!" — performed by The Andrews Sisters ♪

[13:04] David Armstrong: Unfortunately, the show has only been rarely produced since it closed on Broadway. Ironically, I suppose, because people felt it wouldn't work without the Andrews Sisters.

[13:19] David Armstrong: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. We're gonna spread some joy for everybody.

[13:25] David Armstrong: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll do the entertainer.

[13:51] David Armstrong: Greece also played a role in the creation of another of the nostalgia era's signature musical groups. While performing on Broadway as the original Teen Angel and Johnny Casino, singer Alan Paul became one of the four founding members of the Manhattan Transfer.

[13:57] David Armstrong: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, producer of some of the most magnificent movie musicals in all of Hollywood's history, proudly presents the greatest musical of them all.

[14:19] David Armstrong: That's Entertainment! With special appearances by Elizabeth Taylor, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly.

[14:25] David Armstrong: Then in 1974, the movie That's Entertainment was released. This was a breathtaking compendium of the greatest stars and most exciting musical numbers from MGM's classic movie musicals.

[14:36] David Armstrong: Featuring stunning performances by Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Gene Kelly, and dozens more, and songs by Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Jerome Kern, The Gershwins, and Dietz and Schwartz.

[14:48] David Armstrong: It became a runaway hit and spawned three sequels. You can wait around and hope, but I'll tell you, you'll never see the likes of this again.

[14:59] David Armstrong: Boy, do we need it now.

[15:02] David Armstrong: Don't go away. There's more of Broadway Nation right after this short break.

[15:11] David Armstrong: Meanwhile, on Broadway, the nostalgia craze continued with a hit 1975 revival of the Jerome Kern Princess Theater musical Very Good Eddie.

[15:20] David Armstrong: Then 1979 gave audiences both the 1928 Edie Cantor musical Whoopee! and the 1930s style classic burlesque show Sugar Babies.

[15:30] David Armstrong: This starred two former MGM movie stars who had been featured in That's Entertainment, Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller.

[15:37] David Armstrong: It was, of course, inevitable that the movie 42nd Street itself would become a Broadway musical, using songs drawn from several Warner Brothers Busby Berkeley musical films.

[15:46] David Armstrong: That same season, there was the Marx Brothers inspired revusical, A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine.

[15:53] David Armstrong: 1983 brought a revival of Rodgers and Hart's On Your Toes, and over the next decade, there would be two Gershwin revivals, both of them so heavily reworked that they were given new titles: My One and Only in 1983 and Crazy for You in 1993.

[16:09] David Armstrong: And in between came the Broadway debut of a 1937 London hit called Me and My Girl.

[16:33] David Armstrong: Although it was, of course, an entirely new musical, it certainly played on nostalgia for the comic strip and radio show Little Orphan Annie from the Depression era, which the author smartly used to echo the recession of the early 80s.

[16:53] David Armstrong: This show was another very bad idea for a musical that was viewed with great skepticism before it opened. But in its original production, it was a wonderfully joyous experience, whose authors had accomplished something that seemed impossible at the time.

[17:07] David Armstrong: They had created a brand new, entirely captivating, traditional golden age type musical comedy at a time when they were very much considered to be dead.

[17:17] David Armstrong: Annie ran 2,377 performances. The show's three Jewish authors are composer Charles Strouse, whose music was a very savvy mix of 1970s pop and traditional show tunes.

[17:29] David Armstrong: The lyricist was Martin Charnin, who had started his career as one of the Jets in West Side Story, and the bookwriter was Thomas Meehan, who said he saw Annie as, quote, a metaphorical figure standing for innate decency, courage, and optimism in the face of hard times, pessimism, and despair.

[17:48] David Armstrong: The sun'll come out tomorrow.

[17:52] David Armstrong: Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there'll be sun.

[17:59] David Armstrong: No, Harold.

[18:00] David Armstrong: Go ahead, Annie.

[18:01] David Armstrong: It's still a free country.

[18:03] David Armstrong: Like all life force characters, Annie transforms the world around her by spreading joy and progressive values to everyone she encounters.

[18:12] David Armstrong: In this case, in a plot thread that could not be more timely, conservative Republican millionaire Daddy Warbucks discovers the something that was missing from his life.

[18:21] David Armstrong: The life-changing power of love and of caring about someone other than himself.

[18:26] David Armstrong: And at the climax of the show, Annie inspires FDR and his cabinet to create the New Deal.

[18:32] David Armstrong: And Daddy Warbucks sings along.

[18:42] David Armstrong: Harold, stand up and sing.

[18:46] David Armstrong: What?

[18:46] David Armstrong: Sing!

[18:47] David Armstrong: The sun will come out tomorrow.

[18:47] David Armstrong: Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there'll be sun.

[18:56] David Armstrong: Just thinking about tomorrow.

[18:59] David Armstrong: Clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow.

[19:05] David Armstrong: 'Til there's none.

[19:08] David Armstrong: That's Brian Holly.

[19:10] David Armstrong: I just stick out my chin and grin and say, the sun'll come out tomorrow.

[19:20] David Armstrong: So you gotta hang on 'til tomorrow.

[19:24] David Armstrong: Come what may.

[19:27] David Armstrong: Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow.

[19:38] David Armstrong: You're only a day away.

[19:38] David Armstrong: Tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow, you're only a day away.

[19:57] David Armstrong: Some people would contend that the nostalgia craze never ended, at least as far as Broadway is concerned.

[20:02] David Armstrong: Although revivals of popular musicals have been part of the Broadway mix throughout almost all of its 120-year history, the success of No, No, Nanette and its successors created a pattern and expectation that in every season there should be at least enough revivals to fill out a Tony Award best revival category.

[20:20] David Armstrong: And in addition, you could say that the immense popularity of the City Center Encore series is another extension of the nostalgia craze.

[20:27] David Armstrong: I for one hope that we will never tire of rediscovering and reinventing the great musicals of Broadway's past.

[20:53] David Armstrong: Broadway Nation is written and produced by me, David Armstrong.

[20:57] David Armstrong: If you enjoy these podcasts, you could do me a big favor by subscribing, rating, and especially writing a quick review of the show on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

[21:07] David Armstrong: And please follow us on our Facebook page, Twitter, and Instagram, where I often post photos, video, and more info about the shows that I profile in each episode.

[21:16] David Armstrong: Special thanks to KVSH 101.9, the voice of beautiful Vashon Island, Washington, and the team at the Broadway Podcast Network.

[21:24] David Armstrong: Come on along and listen to the lullaby of Broadway.

[21:34] David Armstrong: The man begins to go to town and everyone goes crazy.