Broadway in Black and White
The Untold Story of the American Musical
with John Mauceri (Narrator); John McWhorter (Narrator)
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Pub Date Nov 3 2026 | Archive Date Nov 10 2026
RBmedia | Recorded Books
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Description
Long before racial integration became the law of the land, Broadway showed Americans what it could look and sound like.
Shaped by Black musical traditions, European theatrical forms, and immigrant cultures, the Broadway musical emerged in the twentieth century as a visceral embodiment of the American melting pot. In Broadway in Black and White, conductor and historian John Mauceri—together with linguist and cultural commentator John H. McWhorter—presents a dazzling history of collaboration between Black and white artists in the American musical theater.Moving from ragtime and operetta through Show Boat and Shuffle Along to The Lion King, Ragtime, and Hamilton, Mauceri reveals how Broadway’s social and political influence extends far beyond artistic achievements and commercial successes. Incisive, deeply personal interludes by McWhorter offer a parallel perspective on the American musical as a testament to cultural exchange.
Mauceri and McWhorter illustrate that the Broadway musical both reflected and accelerated the nation’s continued strides toward racial equality. Politically active works confronted prejudice and invited audiences to imagine a more just society. Equally potent was the visible fact of Black and white artists writing, creating, and performing together, when segregation still shaped much of American life.
Together, Mauceri and McWhorter celebrate the American musical as an art form belonging to all of us. Though this history contains prejudice, exclusion, compromise, and contradiction, it is also a history of extraordinary progress. Broadway in Black and White lovingly presents Broadway as a metaphor for America in all its complexity—fragmented and imperfect, yet eminently capable of becoming greater than the sum of its parts.
Advance Praise
"An illuminating account of Broadway's multiracial history… Mauceri and McWhorter give [musical theater] a sharp focus and offer fresh insights."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Thoughtful and illuminating… Required reading for anyone interested in musical theater."
—Carolyn Mulac, Booklist, starred review
"Unfailingly interesting… [Mauceri and McWhorter's] scholarship is undeniable, but it is the heart in this book that will win readers over."
—David Keymer, Library Journal, starred review
"Broadway in Black and White is an excavation and celebration of the African American contribution to the Broadway musical, which disabuses the alabaster legend of ‘the Great White Way.’ It’s a journey that begins with the jazz of ragtime, which gave the American musical its distinctive inspiring pulse of joy, and ends with a cavalcade of Black talent, which gave the form much of its sound—Eubie Blake, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller—and its shine—Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Ethel Waters, Pearl Bailey, Lena Horne, Audra McDonald among many. As it progresses from Sissle and Blake’s pioneering Shuffle Along to Hairspray and Ragtime, the arc of the struggle for artistic inclusion inevitably becomes the story of integration in cap and bells. The book is a valuable addition to our understanding of the musical’s history and its personification of the nation’s fraught pursuit of happiness."
—John Lahr, author of Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh
Available Editions
| EDITION | Audiobook, Unabridged |
| ISBN | 9798898856632 |
| PRICE | $34.99 (USD) |
| DURATION | 12 Hours, 26 Minutes |