America's Musical Theatre Historian

The stories
behind Broadway's
greatest

Over 60 multimedia presentations on the creation of America's most beloved musicals, combining original graphics, archival audio, and scripted narrative into an experience "Talkin' Broadway" called absolute magic.

85–90 min presentations
York Theatre Company, NYC
Chicago Tribune Feature
Available in-person & via Zoom
Cole Porter Festival, Indiana
Charles Troy

About Charles Troy

A historian who makes
history feel alive

"Absolute magic." — Talkin' Broadway, on a presentation at the York Theatre Company

Charles Troy is a retired graphic designer, former theatre lyricist, and one of America's most acclaimed musical theatre historians. He has developed more than fifty multimedia presentations on the great works of the American musical stage.

His presentations weave original graphics, historic photographs, edited audio tracks with onscreen lyrics, and illustrative video clips into a thoroughly researched narrative, transforming facts into a compelling dramatic story.

Based in the Chicago area, Charles appears regularly at the York Theatre Company in New York City, the Cole Porter Festival in Peru, Indiana, and venues throughout the Midwest and Florida.

Chicago area based York Theatre Company regular Cole Porter Festival National & virtual engagements
0 Multimedia Presentations
85+ Minutes per program
0 Years performing
Zoom Virtual presentations available

The Programs

Broadway's greatest musicals,
revealed from the inside

Each presentation follows the creation story of a landmark musical, from blank page to opening night, with audio clips, photos, and the dramatic turns that shaped theatre history.

Rodgers & Hammerstein

The Creation of "Oklahoma!"

How a lyricist without a composer and a composer without a lyricist found each other and created the musical that defined the modern American musical play.

85–90 min Preview

Lerner & Loewe

The Creation of "My Fair Lady"

Shaw's "Pygmalion" to the most beloved musical of its era: the long and surprising journey of the show that almost never was.

85–90 min Preview

Bock & Harnick

The Creation of "Fiddler on the Roof"

How Jerome Robbins guided his team to find universal truth in Sholom Aleichem's Yiddish stories and built one of the world's most produced musicals.

85–90 min Preview
Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim

The Creation of “West Side Story”

Bernstein, Robbins, Laurents, and an unknown 25-year-old Sondheim: the daring collaboration behind Broadway's boldest musical tragedy.

85–90 min Preview

Kander & Ebb

The Creation of "Cabaret"

America's first concept musical, and how Bob Fosse's film perfected what Harold Prince began, six years and a transformation later.

85–90 min Preview

MGM / Harold Arlen

The Creation of "The Wizard of Oz"

Studio intrigue, reversed decisions, and one brilliant uncredited choice: the real story behind the most-watched movie of all time.

85–90 min Preview

Cole Porter

Porter's Top Ten List Songs

What is a List Song? Troy's selection of Porter's Top Ten, chosen for wit, popularity, and significance, played chronologically with biographical context.

45 min

Cole Porter

Porter's Top Ten Lust Songs

Porter's love ballads, "Lust Songs," with the story of his secret private life woven through his greatest standards.

45 min

George & Ira Gershwin

1924: The Gershwins' Magical Year

From "Rhapsody in Blue" in January to "Lady Be Good!" in December: the year that catapulted the brothers to the top of American popular culture.

Short format

4-Part Series

From Russia to Berlin:
A Century of Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin's extraordinary 101-year journey, told across four multimedia programs. Premiered at the York Theatre Company.

4 programs

2-Part Series

Bernstein, Comden & Green's Two "Town" Triumphs

On the Town and Wonderful Town — the two shows that made Bernstein, Comden, and Green legends of the New York musical stage.

2 programs

Cole Porter

Cole Porter: A Musical Comedy Tour of Paris

Five songs, five stories: a richly illustrated journey through Porter's Parisian years and the songs that defined sophisticated American wit.

Short format

Press & Reviews

What the critics say

"Absolute magic."

Talkin' Broadway, York Theatre Company, NYC

"A historian who shares his astounding knowledge — Troy makes the facts into a compelling story."

Roy Leonard, WGN Radio, Chicago

"These visually seamless presentations combine original graphics, edited audio tracks, illustrative video clips and live performers, all into a dramatic tale."

Elkhart Jazz Festival

"America's most acclaimed dramatic musical theatre historian."

Elkhart Jazz Festival Program Notes

Watch Online

See Charles in action: free on YouTube

Watch free preview clips of Charles's presentations on YouTube. Each full program runs 60–90 minutes and is available for live or virtual booking.

Watch on YouTube ↗ Book a Presentation

Ready to bring musical
theatre history to your audience?

Charles is available for in-person engagements across the US and virtually via Zoom. Reaches audiences of all ages who love the American musical theatre.

All Programs

60+ presentations on
the great American musical

Each 60–90 minute program combines original graphics, archival audio and video, and a thoroughly researched narrative into a coherent dramatic story about the making of a landmark musical.

Long Programs

The Creation Of… Series

Programs are 60–90 minutes and available for in-person or virtual presentation. (Length is shown at the bottom of each program.) Previews are coming attractions made for previous appearances.

Rodgers & Hammerstein

R & H

The Creation of "Oklahoma!"

How a lyricist without a composer and a composer without a lyricist found each other and created the show that defined the musical play. Illustrated by scenes from the 1999 Hugh Jackman revival.

85–90 minPreview

R & H

The Creation of "Carousel"

Their follow-up to Oklahoma! is considered to have the most beautiful score Richard Rodgers ever wrote, and was named by Time magazine as the greatest musical of the 20th century.

85–90 minPreview

R & H

The Creation of "South Pacific"

How they adapted an obscure first novel by James Michener — which subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize, and so did their show, becoming a massive popular and critical success.

85–90 minPreview

R & H

The Creation of "The King and I"

Written as a vehicle for its female star, it ended up as the star-making vehicle for its unknown opposite lead: the last of four landmark shows that drained Rodgers & Hammerstein in eight years.

85–90 minPreview

R & H

The Creation of "The Sound of Music"

Their last show became, in its film version, bigger than the rest. We'll learn the absurd way they became involved, and speculate how Hammerstein might have written "Do-Re-Mi."

85–90 minPreview

Lerner & Loewe

Lerner & Loewe

The Creation of "My Fair Lady"

From Shaw's 1912 intellectual drawing room comedy Pygmalion and its 1938 film version to a universally beloved musical triumph: their most difficult and most stunning achievement.

85–90 minPreview

Lerner & Loewe

The Creation of "Camelot"

Their last great musical almost killed two great talents. Lerner and director Moss Hart were both hospitalized during the tryout period. It took two events, one unlikely, one tragic, to make it a legend.

85–90 minPreview

Bock & Harnick

Bock & Harnick

The Creation of "Fiddler on the Roof"

Jerome Robbins guided his creative team to find universality in the stories of Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem, resulting in a new opening number and one of the world's most beloved musicals.

85–90 minPreview

Bock & Harnick

The Creation of "She Loves Me"

An under-appreciated Bock & Harnick masterpiece: the perfect musical, adapted from the Ernst Lubitsch-Jimmy Stewart 1940 film The Shop Around the Corner (later You've Got Mail).

85–90 minPreview

Kander & Ebb

Kander & Ebb

The Creation of "Cabaret"

America's first successful concept musical. Director Harold Prince led his writers into uncharted Broadway territory in 1966 and Bob Fosse's 1972 film dramatically revised and perfected the hit musical.

85–90 minPreview

Kander & Ebb

The Creation of "Chicago"

Bob Fosse's 1975 "Musical Vaudeville" — you'll hear the historic originals that inspired each pastiche number, learn about 1920s Chicago, plus the novice playwright who supplied the musical's source.

85–90 minPreview

Stephen Sondheim

Bernstein / Sondheim

The Creation of "West Side Story"

Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents, and an unknown 25-year-old Sondheim: the daring collaboration behind Broadway's boldest musical tragedy, which almost didn't reach the stage.

85–90 minPreview

Sondheim / Styne

The Creation of "Gypsy"

Sondheim and veteran tunesmith Jule Styne were forced to pair up by the dictates of star Ethel Merman and went on to write one of the most memorable scores in Broadway history.

85–90 minPreview
The Creation of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Stephen Sondheim

The Creation of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum"

Sondheim's first show with both his lyrics and music, based on the works of an ancient Roman playwright, turned from a disaster to a hit with one new song that he wrote out of town.

70 minPreview
The Creation of A Little Night Music

Sondheim

The Creation of "A Little Night Music"

Sondheim's most delightful and approachable show of his mature period, based on a rare Ingmar Bergman comedy, and featuring his most popular song ever, "Send in the Clowns."

85–90 minPreview

Movie Musicals

Arlen / Fleming

The Creation of "The Wizard of Oz"

Studio intrigue, bad decisions reversed, a brilliant choice by "the man behind the curtain" and the struggle to write and retain "Over the Rainbow": the real story behind the most-watched film of all time.

85–90 minPreview

Nacio Herb Brown / Arthur Freed

The Creation of "Singin' in the Rain"

Believed by many people to be the greatest movie musical ever. When Gene Kelly signed on and cast Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds, it was on its way to becoming a beloved classic!

60 min

Other Broadway Landmark Musicals

Sherman Edwards

The Creation of "1776"

How a former schoolteacher turned the Continental Congress into a gripping Broadway musical, dramatizing the most consequential three months in American history with song and historical fidelity.

85–90 minPreview

Andrew Lloyd Webber / Tim Rice

The Creation of "Evita"

The unlikely journey from a concept album to a global phenomenon: how Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice dramatized the life of Eva Perón and invented the modern sung-through mega-musical.

85–90 minPreview

Jule Styne / Comden & Green

The Creation of "Funny Girl"

The turbulent creation of the show that made Barbra Streisand a star: the true story of Fanny Brice, Ziegfeld Follies sensation, told against the backdrop of Broadway's most demanding production.

85–90 minPreview

Frank Loesser

The Creation of "Guys & Dolls"

Frank Loesser's adaptation of Damon Runyon's Broadway low-lifes became one of the most beloved American musicals: a show built on comic gamblers and some of the wittiest songs ever written.

85–90 minPreview