Leonard Bernstein: On (and Off) Broadway

Recently brought back into the spotlight by the film Maestro, Leonard Bernstein remains one of the most complex and compelling figures in American music. A brilliant composer of Broadway hits, a world-renowned conductor, an influential educator, and an early television star, Bernstein was also a man of contradictions—praised for his genius yet often wrestling with the feeling that he never fully fulfilled his extraordinary early promise.

This informative and entertaining lecture-recital by Dr. Allen Cohen explores Bernstein’s remarkable life and career both on Broadway and beyond. Through carefully selected audio and video examples, audiences will trace his journey from groundbreaking musical theater works to his celebrated achievements in classical music, including his tenure with the New York Philharmonic.

The program examines Bernstein’s enduring legacy, his struggles with artistic identity, and his lasting impact on American culture, revealing how his passion, ambition, and vulnerability shaped a body of work that continues to inspire musicians and audiences alike. Engaging, insightful, and accessible, this lecture offers a rich portrait of the most famous American classical musician in history—on stage, on screen, and behind the baton.

Dr. Allen Cohen is Professor of Music at Fairleigh Dickinson University. His compositions have been played in Carnegie Hall and across the United States and Europe. He has also written dance arrangements for Broadway musicals, scores for off-Broadway musicals and plays, and music for several films and many radio and television commercials, and he has conducted three musicals on Broadway and many elsewhere. He is the author of Howard Hanson in Theory and Practice (Praeger/Greenwood) and the popular children’s book That’s So Funny I Forgot to Laugh! (Scholastic), and co-author of Writing Musical Theater (Palgrave Macmillan). He has served as a judge for the American Prize in music for many years, and he has presented papers about music and musical theater at conferences in New York City, Hawaii, Greece, and Germany.

This program is made possible with the support of The Friends of the Livingston Public Library.