Broadway: The American Musical

By Luna Lovegood Sep 6, 2004, 1:41 GMT

Julie Andrews

Julie Andrews will host a six part PBS series entitled Broadway: The American Musical. It will debut October 19th to 21st at 9pm (ET). Check your local listings. 

Broadway: The American Musical tells the epic history of the American musical in its entirety. Beginning with the renaming of Longacre Square to Times Square in 1904, the centennial saga is chronicled through first-person accounts from Broadway's leading luminaries and illustrated by a remarkable collection of rare archival footage, personal correspondence, diary excerpts, newsreels, private home movies, and much more. The series captures not only a century of theater history, but also the context of American history within which it unfolded.

Accounts from such stars as Mel Brooks, Carol Channing, Betty Comden, Agnes De Mille, Harvey Fierstein, Bob Fosse, Brendan Gill, Frances Gershwin Godowsky, Adolph Green, Joel Grey, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Jerry Herman, Al Hirschfeld, Margo Jefferson, John Kander and Fred Ebb, John Lahr, Rocco Landesman, James Lapine, Arthur Laurents, Galt MacDermot, Jerry Mitchell, "Ziegfeld Girl" Dana O'Connell, Jerry Orbach, Harold Prince, Jerome Robbins, Gerald Schoenfeld, Stephen Sondheim, Peter Stone, Tommy Tune, Ben Vereen, George Wolfe, and many others will be featured. 

The program is being produced and directed by Michael Kantor who had this to say, "There's no place in the world like Broadway - 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. As Times Square celebrates its 100th anniversary, it's crucial to hear from the key Broadway figures who actually had a role in shaping the course of American culture - to document the stories of these creative legends in their own words - before it's too late."

The six episodes will show as follows:

Episode 1: Give My Regards to Broadway (1893-1927) 10/19 9pm
At the turn of the century, the American musical theater embodied the hope that America offered to millions of new immigrants. The story of legendary producer Florenz Ziegfeld introduces many of the era's key figures: Irving Berlin, a Russian immigrant who became the voice of assimilated America; entertainers like Jewish comedienne Fanny Brice and African American Bert Williams, who became America's first "crossover" artists; and the brash Irish American George M. Cohan, whose song-and-dance routines embodied the energy of Broadway. The episode culminates in Ziegfeld's production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's farsighted masterpiece, Show Boat.

Episode 2: Syncopated City (1919-1933) 10/19 10pm
With the advent of Prohibition and the Jazz Age, along with newly won freedoms for women, America was convulsed with energy and change, and nowhere was the riotous mix of classes and cultures more dramatically displayed than on Broadway. Emblematic talents like Marilyn Miller, the Marx Brothers, and Al Jolson rocketed to stardom as innovative songwriting teams like George and Ira Gershwin, Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, and Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart wrote the music that seduced the entire nation with New York City's syncopated rhythm. But as the Roaring Twenties came to a close, Broadway's Jazz Age suffered a one-two punch, the "talking picture" and the stock market crash, triggering a massive talent exodus to Hollywood.

Episode 3: I Got Plenty O' Nuttin' (1930-1942) 10/20 9pm
The Great Depression proved to be a dynamic period of creative growth on Broadway, and a dichotomy in the musical theater emerged. Productions like Cole Porter's Anything Goes offered glamour and high times as an escape, while others -- such as "Of Thee I Sing" and the remarkable WPA production of The Cradle Will Rock -- dealt directly with the era's social and political concerns. Rodgers and Hart created a string of new shows, including the sexually frank Pal Joey, starring newcomer Gene Kelly. Ethel Merman and Ethel Waters emerged as top box office draws, and George Gershwin created his epic masterpiece, Porgy and Bess, bringing a hybrid style of folk opera to Broadway.

Episode 4: Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin' (1943-1960) 10/20 10pm
The new partnership of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II changed the face of Broadway forever. Beginning with Oklahoma! in 1943, their shows -- Carousel, South Pacific, and The King and I -- set the standard for decades to come by pioneering a musical form in which story is all-important. In On the Town, an exuberant team of novices -- Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and Jerome Robbins -- captured the energy, humor, and pathos of New York City during World War II. Irving Berlin and Ethel Merman triumphed with "Annie Get Your Gun." In shows like Kiss Me, Kate, Guys and Dolls, and My Fair Lady, sophisticated adaptations of literary material prevailed. Yet with the death of Oscar Hammerstein II soon after the premiere of The Sound of Music in 1959, the curtain began to lower on a golden age.

Episode 5: Tradition (1957-1979) 10/21 9pm
From the late '50s into the early '60s, Broadway produced another wave of enduring shows, including the groundbreaking West Side Story. But by the mid-'60s, overwhelmed by rock 'n' roll and tumultuous social change, Broadway seemed out of touch, and the increasing seediness and crime of the 42nd Street theater district repelled audiences. Hair successfully transferred a counterculture milieu to Broadway, and the musical genre evolved to encompass the adult narrative of Stephen Sondheim's Company and the conceptual theater of John Kander and Fred Ebb's Cabaret. Bob Fosse captured a sexuality and cynicism ahead of its time with Chicago, but it was director/choreographer Michael Bennett who spearheaded the biggest blockbuster of all -- A Chorus Line.

Episode 6: Putting It Together (1980-Present) 10/21 10pm
Notorious producer David Merrick reconquered Broadway in the early '80s with a smash adaptation of the movie musical 42nd Street, but soon the biggest hits were arriving from an unexpected source -- London. The "pop operas" of producer Cameron Mackintosh and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber redefined the musical's theatrical vocabulary and became international blockbusters. With Julie Taymor's triumphant reimagining of The Lion King, Disney led the astonishing resurrection of 42nd Street. Composer Jonathan Larson scored a bittersweet victory with the rock-flavored Rent, and the old-style musical was reborn in Mel Brooks' The Producers. Broadway's corporate dominance continues to grow, as evidenced by new shows such as Wicked, the biggest hit of the 2003-04 season.

The program will also be released on home video and DVD along with a five CD box set and illustrated companion book. The website features extensive behind the scenes material that can be found here.