SYNOPSES FOR ‘THE BROADWAY MUSICALS YEARBOOK’ SERIES

01 1962

‘Comedy Tonight’ from 1962’s Best Musical Tony Award winner, ‘A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to The Forum’, is the perfect welcome song to start this series. We’ll also hear the Broadway debut song of a young Barbra Streisand as well as Anthony Newley’s ‘What Kind Of Fool Am I’. And you’ll know the songs from ‘Little Me’ and ‘No Strings’ even if you’ve never heard of the shows.

02 1978

From the toe-tapping music of Fats Waller in the revue, ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’, to the country sounds of ‘The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas’, 1978 was a year of musical contrasts. There’s the mock operetta, ‘On The 20th Century’, the folk sound of ‘Working’, the rock beat of ‘Runaways’ and the lush old-style orchestrations of ‘Timbuktu’, a reworking of ‘Kismet’.

03 1949

1949 was the year of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘South Pacific’. It was also the year of the song ‘Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend’ from ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’. You’ll hear performances by Mary Martin, Carol Channing and Ezio Pinza. Todd Duncan sings ‘Lost In The Stars’ and Eddie Albert of ‘Green Acres’ TV fame does a song from Irving Berlin’s period show, ‘Miss Liberty’.

04 1984

1984 was a difficult year on Broadway with many new shows closing quickly. You’ll hear songs from ‘The Human Comedy’, written by the composer of the musical ‘Hair’, and wonder why it flopped. There are great songs with Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera from ‘The Rink’ and Bernadette Peters shines in a song from Stephen Sondheim’s, ‘Sunday In The Park With George’.