Boca on Broadway: Road Show, Addison Mizner, and Florida’s Jewish Boom

This legacy episode of Southern & Jewish originally aired on June 28, 2022. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify, and watch all of our past episodes at www.isjl.org/podcast.html. 

 

The story of south Florida is a story of boom and bust, of destruction and creation, of capitalism and its discontents. It's a story that is interpreted in Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's musical Road Show, about the relationship between (non-Jewish) brothers Addison and Wilson Mizner, whose creative imagination and thirst for wealth shaped Palm Beach and Boca Raton during the 1920s Florida land boom. In conversation with three-time Tony nominee John Weidman and with insights from historians of Jewish Florida, we're tracing the development of Jewish life in the Sunshine State. Join Southern & Jewish for a whirlwind musical tour of Florida Jewry and a dissection of the enigmas and eccentricities of early-20th-century American history.

If you've ever wondered what Stephen Sondheim has to do with Boca Raton, this episode is for you.

 

Links from the episode:

Road Show: https://www.mtishows.com/road-show

John Weidman: https://masterworksbroadway.com/artist/john-weidman/

Jewish Museum of Florida - FIU: https://jmof.fiu.edu/

Marcia Jo Zerivitz's book Jews of Florida: Centuries of Stories: https://www.amazon.com/Jews-Florida-Centuries-Marcia-Zerivitz/dp/1467142530

Richard René Silvin: https://rrsilvin.com/2.0/

Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach: https://www.palmbeachpreservation.org/

Boca Raton Historical Society: https://www.bocahistory.org/

Boca Raton Jewish Oral History Project: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlCl4uZbvREcRAleq-kdlQSd38AL77Y02 

ISJL Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities: https://www.isjl.org/florida-encyclopedia.html

Images of the 2008 Public Theater and 2019 New York City Center Encores! productions of Road Show courtesy of Joan Marcus: https://www.joanmarcusphotography.com/

This project was made possible by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Mississippi Humanities Council.