Broadway To Main Street

Since Stephen Sondheim's passing in 2021, there have been several exciting revivals and revitalizations; here are a few: Merrily We Roll Along, Here We Are, Into the Woods, Melissa Errico, Liz Callaway and more.

To tee up the "Rodgers and Hammerstein 80th Anniversary Concert" on Great Performances l PBS on May 31st, I've selected some of my favorite things: performances by Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, Nina Simone, Ray Charles and a surrey full of others.

In preparation for the PBS/Great Performances concert of Audra McDonald from the London Palladium (May 17), we play some of her finest moments from across her storied career: rarities and Tony-winners.

We're kicking off WLIW's "Broadway and Beyond" television/radio programming with a special episode of Game Changers and Groundbreakers: Show Boat, Pal Joey, Company, The Producers, Hamilton, and more.

In classic American musicals, there's usually a supporting--other--couple. Here's a tribute to Nathan and Adelaide, Ado Annie and Will Parker, Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz, and many more.

We travel the world for great international performers singing show tunes--Maurice Chevalier, Jacques Brel, Astrud Gilberto--and rare international cast albums, like Mi Bella Dama.

Broadway's troubadour of the 1950s, Frank Loesser was a master of melody. Some of the greatest pop and jazz performers--Ella Fitzgerald, Bill Evans, Bobby Darin, Eliane Elias--roll the dice with Loesser's tune. 

One of the greatest singers of the 20th Century, Sarah Vaughan gets her centennial moment in the show tune spotlight. Songs from Babes in Arms, West Side Story, Golden Boy, South Pacific and more.

  This week's episode is all about quantum physics and the American musical--just fooling! We celebrate the fools and the foolhardy with performances from Phil Silvers, Carol Burnett, Ed Wynn, Sutton Foster and many more.

  Is the game we're in, celebrating the musical's 70th anniversary this spring. All the classic Adler/Ross songs in renditions by Doris Day, Harry Connick Jr., Rosemary Clooney, and more.

Our tribute to a Broadway star and one of the very best singers of the Broadway songbook. Musical numbers, of course, from What Makes Sammy Run? and Golden Rainbow, and songs from She Loves Me, Golden Boy, High Spirits, and more.

OSCAR BAIT We're hopelessly devoted to the Academy Awards. This episode, we look at the songs written expressly for film adaptations of Broadway shows. Sinatra, Madonna, Streisand, Minnelli, and many more.

A tribute to the indomitable creator of Oliver!, From Russia With Love, and so many more--songs performed by Shirley Bassey, Judy Garland, Bernadette Peters and many others: whatever we got, we share!

We're turning back time to indulge in the jukebox musicals of the last 25 years: The Cher Show, Movin' Out, Jersey Boys, MJ the Musical and so much more.

Highlights from the great songs in Porter's film musicals, rendered by a sensational company of greats: Bing Crosby, Barbra Streisand, Fred Astaire, Nancy Wilson, and more.

Everything is Rosie as we honor a Broadway legend with songs from all her major hits (and some off-beat notes as well).

We look at some of the most perfect harmonic moments from the Broadway canon; four-part wonders from Harmony, Sunday in the Park with George, The Music Man and more.

Celebrating the start of our 13th (!) lucky year on the air, I look at the eclectic compendium of the shows that made such a strong impression on me growing up: "It's a Bird . . .It's a Plane. . . .It's SUPERMAN!," Baker Street, Minnie's Boys, Golden Boy and more.

To frame the new biopic of Leonard Bernstein (courtesy of Bradley Cooper), we look at all of the Maestro's Broadway music used in the film, plus additional performances by Comden and Green, Audra McDonald, Boris Karloff, Nell Carter and more.

Our annual look at the musical theatre giants who left us in 2023: Fiddler on the Roof's Topol, Sheldon Harnick, and Joanna Merlin, as well as Tony Bennett, Harry Belafonte, Inga Swenson, and more.