Tomorrow, The Broadway Maven’s “Introduction to Broadway” course begins. The first session will be FREE so potential students can try it out with no obligation (and no deposit). Registration required: bitly.com/MavenIntro.
The first class, on Tuesday, November 16 at Noon ET, covers the earliest years of Broadway, from Show Boat (1927) to Kiss Me, Kate (1948).
Other shows discussed include Anything Goes (1934), Porgy and Bess (1935), Pal Joey (1940), Oklahoma! (1943), Carousel (1945), and Annie Get Your Gun (1946).
We’ll also look at the career of Ethel Merman and the contributions of songwriters from the period like George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein, Lorenz Hart, Irving Berlin, and Richard Rodgers.
What’s the first true musical (Show Boat or Oklahoma! or something else)? Is Porgy and Bess a musical or an opera? What distinguishes early Broadway from later developments? How was the partnership of Rodgers & Hart different from that of Rodgers & Hammerstein?
We’ll answer all those questions and others using more than 20 brief clips from the eight shows we’ll be covering.
Here is a “sampler” with one song each from terrific high school productions of the eight shows covered in the first session:
After the FREE first class, students will have 24 hours to register for the course at the rate of $79 for nine sessions.