Fridays after Five
Fridays when I was a kid meant the only family night of the week. We never ate dinner together except during vacations or work dinners, so on Fridays, it was always pizza or takeout, chips, and a cheese tray… plus lots of dessert and alcohol for the parents. My dad called his liquor “the twins,” and we actually lost them once when our luggage was taken straight to our hotel room. My dad started freaking out, telling everyone that “the twins were lost!” Needless to say, once my mom explained to the staff who “the twins” actually were, they were highly unamused.
…But back to Friday nights. It was the designated night to drink, blast Jimmy Buffett, Cher, or Fleetwood Mac, and attempt to get my dad to expand his musical pedigree. Then came the conversations, usually over a board game, which would often last until last call. Arguments, crying, yelling, and storytelling — it all happened strictly on Fridays.
So, now that you know the vibe, grab a Loverboy, welcome to the Friday Night Forum, and let’s start a conversation!
Broadway taught us history
I was watching the season finale of Expedition Files this week, which showcased Edgar Allan Poe, Ponce de León, and Hawley Harvey Crippen. It started making me wonder if any Broadway plays, of all things, were based on real-world history or issues. How did I make that leap? Well, Ponce de León was featured in Pirates of the Caribbean, The Raven is a literary classic, and the Crippen case was practically born to be a Netflix documentary. Take a moment and think about it: The Crucible, Chicago, Annie, The Wiz — and obviously Hamilton, duh — just to name a few. Reaching? Not so much.
Just a bunch of Hocus Pocus
The Crucible, for those who have never read the play, watched the movie, or seen it on stage, is the most well-known historical play on Broadway. Not convinced? In The Crucible, art truly imitated life. Set in Salem, Massachusetts — of Hocus Pocus fame — in 1692, the plot follows a puritanical town where the daughters of prominent citizens begin acting erratically. Of course, the town assumes it must be witchcraft and the occult — the easiest scapegoat for bad behavior if you asked law enforcement in the ‘90s.
Beyond the plot and Arthur Miller’s retelling of mass hysteria, the true red herring was even scarier: politics. Miller wrote The Crucible as a direct response to the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in the 1950s. Think MAGA: wanting to silence political enemies and limiting the First Amendment after the Cold War due to the fear of nuclear conflict. Some things never change. It was all sparked by one man, Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, who caused rampant paranoia over alleged communist infiltration within the government and society. Miller’s ultimate standing ovation came when the very politics he wrote about turned on him, compelling him to testify in front of the Senate. Clearly, the committee didn’t understand the plot.
All that Jazz
This next one is for the true-crime junkies. When did your true-crime fascination begin? Busting onto Broadway in 1975, Chicago was based on a 1926 play and book written by journalist and playwright Maurine Dallas Watkins. Her work was inspired by the real-life trials of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner. Chicago centers around the infamous Cook County Jail, where several women are held on murder charges. Velma is a cabaret performer who allegedly shot and killed her husband and sister, while Roxie, a housewife having an affair, faces similar charges.
At its core, Chicago is a 100-year-old case study in true crime, exploring how the media turns criminals into celebrities and exposing the flaws of the justice system. One interesting historical note: at the time of the play’s real-life inception, the number of women accused of murder in Chicago had surged. The cause? That is one question Dallas Watkins never answered.
Oz
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From Chicago, Broadway literally eased on down the road with The Wiz in 1975. While other Broadway plays asked historical questions, The Wiz is pure Black excellence, cultural identity, and representation.
Launching right on the heels of major victories for Black Americans thanks to the Civil Rights Movement — yet unable to escape the echoes of the Great Migration and the economic struggles of Black New Yorkers — The Wiz brought the Black Arts Movement straight to the stage. It blends the classic story of Dorothy’s plight in Oz with the structural realities of Black America. The question after seeing The Wiz, whether on Broadway or in the famous movie adaptation, isn’t why these actors were chosen, but rather: what lessons and uncomfortable truths can white Americans learn from it?
Art imitates life
Close your eyes for a moment. I’m serious, close them. Take a deep breath and slowly exhale. Now, imagine the year is 1933 — smack dab in the middle of the Great Depression. The stock market has crashed. Food is expensive, and people can’t afford to pay their bills, let alone their rent or mortgage. Evolving from a poem to a comic strip, a radio show, a movie, and finally a Broadway musical in 1977, Annie proves you can’t knock a good girl down, even if she has a “hard-knock life.”
Annie tells the story of an orphan stuck in an orphanage who uses her upbeat outlook and grit to inspire her friends, her billionaire foster dad, and even the President of the United States. The show nods to real life during the Depression, anchoring the plot with historical references like “Hoovervilles” — the shantytowns built by homeless individuals and named after Herbert Hoover, who was widely blamed for the economic collapse. Of course, the crescendo of the play features Annie meeting Franklin D. Roosevelt. Inspired by her optimism, FDR conceives the “New Deal” — a series of economic programs, public works projects, and financial reforms aimed at immediate relief, recovery, and reform. Two of its major real-world pillars included establishing the SEC and Social Security.
While researching, I also learned about the fascinating legacy of the “Mickey Finn.” The term is featured in Annie’s iconic song, “It’s the Hard-Knock Life,” where the orphans scheme up ways to torture the orphanage owner, Miss Hannigan, singing: “Make her drink a Mickey Finn!”
As it turns out, Mickey Finn was a real person who owned the Lone Star Saloon in Chicago. Between 1896 and 1903, Mickey poured much more than just a stiff drink; he and his staff would spike customers’ glasses with sedatives, take them to the back to rob them, and throw them out onto the street. By December 1903, authorities caught on and closed the saloon. Mickey fled Chicago, resurfacing briefly in 1918 before his story went completely dark. Interestingly, before he fled the Chicago Southside, he sold his sedative recipe to several other local bars, cementing the phrase “Mickey Finn” into the American lexicon. (On a side note, the actual, safe cocktail by that name was created by Crosby Gaige in 1941.)
So, what do you think? Was this Friday Night Forum a success? Did you know how deeply rooted some of these Broadway plays are in American history? I’m gonna go grab a Mickey Finn 😉 Be sure to hit “follow” for new posts every Friday!
References
True Crime: Beulah Annan, Chicago History Museum (last visited June 19, 2026), https://www.chicagohistory.org/true-crime-beulah-annan/.
What ‘The Wiz’ Was and Is to Black Culture, WNYC Studios: Only Human (Mar. 3, 2016), https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/anxiety/articles/what-the-wiz-was-and-is-to-black-culture.
Brittany Romano, Check Out the Historical References Found Within ‘Annie’, Broadway News (Dec. 13, 2017), https://www.broadwaynews.com/check-out-the-historical-references-found-within-annie-2/.
Gary Meece, ‘Chicago’: The Real-Life Murderesses Who Inspired the Musical, A&E Real Crime (Nov. 15, 2023), https://www.aetv.com/articles/chicago-musical-real-story
