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'Let 'Em Eat Cake: Political Musical Theater In 1930s America'

An image of George Gershwin
Public Domain
/
Wikipedia

As the U.S. endured the Great Depression in the 1930s, productions on Broadway like George Gershwin's"Of Thee I Sing" and Marc Blitzstein's"The Cradle Will Rock" showcased stories criticizing corporate greed and political elections.

While the plays had short lives on Broadway, the music lived on in cultural entities like Gershwin's "Great American Songbook." 

Host Frank Stasio talks with Tim Carter, professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, about the messages behind these political musicals.

Carter gives a lecture called "Let 'Em Eat Cake: Political Musical Theater in 1930s America," on Thursday, April 7 at 6:00 p.m. at the National Humanities Center in Durham. 

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Charlie Shelton-Ormond is a podcast producer for WUNC.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.