This is the second in our occasional series of episodes that I'm calling "In Search of Lost Broadway,” in which my longtime colleague Albert Evans and I try to unearth and rediscover musicals that were very significant and influential Broadway hits in their day but now have disappeared from almost all discussion of Broadway's past and receive only the briefest mentions in the history books.
Today, we focus on a big hit musical of the 1930s that I highly doubt anyone listening to this podcast has ever seen live on stage. That show is THE GREAT WALTZ. It opened on Broadway in 1934 and became one of the longest-running musicals of the decade.
It was the creation of three very significant Broadway artists of what I call the “Silver Age” of Broadway: bookwriter MOSS HART, choreographer ALBERTINA RASCH, and, most notably, the musicals conceiver, director, and lighting designer HASSARD SHORT — who I have come to believe is one of the most important and yet most under-acknowledged Queer inventors of the Broadway musical.
Our goal (at least until someone invents a time machine so that we can journey back to see the show) has been to identify and evaluate firsthand accounts, reviews, scholarship, recordings, films, videos, et cetera (including three movie versions and a live television production) in terms of how effectively they can help us to understand, appreciate and even, to some degree, experience the original Broadway production.
Another reason I selected this show for us to focus on right now is because just a few weeks ago, October 25th, 2025, marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of JOHANN STRAUSS II, who even though he died in 1899, had an amazingly significant presence on Broadway during the 20th century, including 27 showsfeaturing his music between 1882 and
1990. Albert and I will review that list of musicals on the next episode.
Here is your Broadway Nation Ep 192: In Search of Lost Broadway: The Great Waltz companion guide to related media:
A studio cast recording of Waltzes From Vienna, the score of which seems to have been carried over into the Broadway production of The Great Waltz:
Onstage and behind-the-scenes newsreel footage of the original production of The Great Waltz:
The full 1934 film version of Waltzes From Vienna, directed by Alfred Hitchcock:
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