One hundred years of Broadway milestones and musicals will flash to life on the PBS-TV series, "Broadway: The American Musical." It brings alive the epic story of musical theater and its inextricable link to 20th-century American life through portraits of the creators and collaborators who toiled on and off stage to define and develop theater -- especially along "The Great White Way," in and around its centerpiece Times Square, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
Julie Andrews, public television's unofficial "ambassador for the Broadway musical," is the series host. Others appearing on the six-part series, broadcast in two-hour segments over three nights, are Mel Brooks, Carol Channing, Betty Comden, Joel Grey, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Arthur Laurents, Hal Prince, Stephen Sondheim and, among many others, Tommy Tune. The series includes an extraordinary collection of rare archival footage, home movies and tracks from Original Cast Recordings.
No one person created Broadway or the musical. They evolved over time from extraordinarily talented and innovative minds. The best of shows incorporated the variety of influences and elements that shaped our lives at the time.
The series -- the first comprehensive documentary on the history of the American musical created for television -- follows the evolution of the Broadway musical all the way from the late 1800s to the period of mega blockbusters and discusses the financial risks involved in staging them in the face of competition from cable, video games and DVD.
When Florenz Ziegfeld arrived New York in 1893 to find acts for the Chicago World's Fair, the intersection of Broadway and 42nd Street was no one's idea of "the crossroads of the world." In fact, there were no theatres North of that now-famous intersection. But, in the famed tradition of if you build it, they will come, he found the formula: music, spectacle and sex appeal.
By 1913, his Ziegfeld Follies had become an amalgamation of everything that was happening not only in New York, but also in America. And though his spectacles focused on beautiful girls clad as scantily as was permitted in that era, the genus for the Follies was actually built on a hot hunk who, too, wore as little as possible and whose muscled physique had women swooning.
In addition to introducing such stars as comics Weber and Fields, Fanny Brice and W.C. Fields, Ziegfeld integrated Broadway long before it was socially fashionable by introducing Bert Williams.
Peppered throughout "Broadway: The American Musical" are such historical and/or exciting moments, as Follies star and comedienne Fanny Brice's heart-grabbing performance of "My Man"; George Gershwin's visit to Folly Island, SC, where he began to compose his legendary score for Porgy and Bess; the decline of operetta and revues, and the introduction of book shows that touched on relevant social and historical issues, such as the landmark productions of Show Boat, Oklahoma! and South Pacific.
Then there is Ethel Merman's brassy blues rendition of the Gershwins' "I've Got Rhythm" from 1930s Girl Crazy; the new partnership of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II that changed the face of Broadway forever; groundbreaking musicals such as West Side Story, Company, Hair and Gypsy; the popularity of political satire; the British invasion; Julie Taymor's visionary staging of The Lion King; all the way forward to The Producers and a behind-the-scenes look at Wicked's opening night.
The series traverses such national events as the advent of recorded sound, the rise of Hollywood, the Great Depression, both World Wars, labor relations, the introduction of television, the civil rights struggle, the sexual revolution and the impact of AIDS.
In fact, no stone is left unturned. The series touches on race relations and black musicals; how homosexual artists created the most enduring models of heterosexual romance; and how artists have managed to survive -- for instance, in the Great Depression, instead of jumping out windows, they wrote shows and songs about it.
"There's no place in the world like Broadway," says series producer/director Michael Kantor. "It's where the American dream is realized eight times a week, and by and large, it continues to embody the optimistic heartbeat of American culture. Each episode demonstrates how America's ever-changing cultural landscape is reflected from the Broadway stage."
He says that "Broadway: The American Musical" tells two stories: the 100-year history of musical theater and the story of its relationship to 20th-century American life. Kantor's chronological approach begins with the immigrant experience at the turn of the century, when a melting pot of voices and styles gave rise to a popular new form of entertainment. It concludes with this season's hottest, big-budget productions and revivals.
Episode One culminates with Ziegfeld's 1927 precedent-setting production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's masterpiece, Show Boat. "The history of the American musical theater is divided quite simply into two eras: everything before Show Boat, and everything after Show Boat," says writer Miles Kreuger.
Among the key figures featured are Russian-Jewish immigrant Irving Berlin, who became the King of Tin Pan Alley and seemed to have his pulse on everything American; the brash Irish-American George M. Cohan, whose song-and-dance routines embodied the energy of America; notorious "Abominable Showman" David Merrick; and, of course, as the series reaches musical theater in the latter part of the 20th Century, Sondheim, Herman and the impact of Lloyd Webber.
Kantor explains he wanted to hear in their own words from the key figures who had a role in shaping the course of Broadway as American culture. Over nine years, and from many sources, you hear from "Ziegfeld Girl" Dana O'Connell, artist Al Hirschfeld, Gershwin sister Frances Gershwin Godowsky and writers, lyricists, producers, performers, directors -- and critics.
"Broadway: The American Musical" took a lot of "producing": Ghost Light Films, Thirteen/WNET New York, NHK and the BBC in association with Carlton International.
And funding: Capital One, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Endowment for the Humanities, Dorothy and Lewis Cullman, Shubert Organization, LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, National Endowment for the Arts and, among countless others, Viewers Like You.
Also, "Broadway: The American Musical" will not just be on TV: Bulfinch Press has a lavishly illustrated companion book, co-authored by Kantor and NYU professor and theater historian Laurence Maslon. In addition, there's Paramount home video and DVD. Columbia Masterworks has issued a five-CD box set of the music with lavish print materials, and Decca Broadway has released a single highlights disc.
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