From Irish American Vaudevillian to Broadway’s Yankee Doodle Dandy: George M. Cohan and His Broadway

Playwright, composer, lyricist, director, producer, and star performer George M. Cohan (1878–1942) looms large in musical theater legend, remembered for tunes like “You’re a Grand Old Flag,” “The Yankee Doodle Boy,” “Over There,” and “Give My Regards to Broadway.” Cohan's early twentieth-century songs and shows, like the groundbreaking Little Johnny Jones (1904) and beloved Little Nellie Kelly (1922), captured the spirit of an era when staggering social change gave new urgency to efforts to define Americanism. This lecture recital will illustrate how Cohan—a lower-class vaudevillian from a then marginalized immigrant group of Irish Americans—navigated the racial and class tensions of the day, establishing a “Yankee Doodle” public persona, staging patriotism in his shows, continuing to celebrate his Irish heritage, and, ultimately, giving the nation some of its most memorable songs.

With its timely themes of American patriotism, culture, and immigration, not to mention the catchy tunes that illustrate these themes,…