Broadway: The American Musical
A Special Six-Part Series on the Musical Theater of Broadway
On NJN Public Television
Monday, November 1, 8 & 15, at 9 pm

STATEWIDE – Today, with new musicals such as Wicked enjoying phenomenal success with ten recent Tony Award nominations, revivals like Fiddler on the Roof filling the house and the Hollywood adaptation of Chicago winning the 2003 Oscar for Best Picture, Broadway is proving once again that its vitality and magic endure. BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL , an unprecedented six-part, six-hour documentary series, airs on NJN on Monday, November 1, 8 & 15, from 9 pm until 11 pm .

The first comprehensive documentary series on the history of the American musical ever created for television, BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL is hosted by Julie Andrews, Academy Award-winning star of stage, film and television — and PBS’s unofficial “ambassador for the Broadway musical.”

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. Producer Michael 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. The series ends with today’s Broadway, where big-budget new productions and revivals of classic favorites compete side by side for box office success.

Peppered throughout are legendary moments in Broadway history: George Gershwin’s sojourn to Folly Island , where he began to compose his celebrated score for Porgy and Bess ; the thrill of Oklahoma ! ’s opening night; comedienne Fanny Brice’s heart-grabbing performance of “My Man.” From the titillating yet artful spectacle of The Ziegfeld Follies to Ethel Merman’s brassy rendition of “I’ve Got Rhythm,” and from Julie Taymor’s visionary staging of The Lion King to a behind-the-scenes look at Wicked ’s opening night, the series enlightens, educates and offers unique insight into this truly American art form.

BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL assembled first-person accounts from dozens of theater luminaries — among them late greats such as Adolph Green, Brendan Gill, Peter Stone, “Ziegfeld Girl” Dana O’Connell, Al Hirschfeld and Frances Gershwin Godowsky. The whole of Broadway is represented: writers, lyricists, producers, performers, directors and scholars. Among them are Mel Brooks, Carol Channing, Betty Comden, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Jerry Herman, Margo Jefferson, John Kander and Fred Ebb, Joel Grey, Harvey Fierstein, Robert Kimball, Chita Rivera, John Lahr, Rocco Landesman, Jerry Orbach, Arthur Laurents, Harold Prince, Gerald Schoenfeld, Stephen Sondheim, Tommy Tune, Ben Vereen, George Wolfe and many others.

Executive producer Jac Venza says the series is a sterling addition to Thirteen/WNET’s four-decade tradition of showcasing musical theater and its creative talents on PBS with such series as GREAT PERFORMANCES, THEATER IN AMERICA, DANCE IN AMERICA and STAGE ON SCREEN. “Our long history of collaboration with the theater community, as well as our extensive track record in performance programming, has provided us with the access and relationships necessary to tell the complete, epic story of Broadway.”

The series traverses a century of national events with seismic reverberations on the Broadway stage, including recorded sound, the rise of Hollywood , the Great Depression, both World Wars, labor relations, the advent of television, civil rights, the sexual revolution and AIDS. Each of the six films demonstrates how America ’s ever-changing cultural landscape is reflected back from the Broadway stage.

To bring this story to life, BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL uses an extraordinary collection of archival footage, newsreels, private home movies, original cast recordings, still photos, diary excerpts, personal correspondences, rare television and audio archives, and autobiographical material.

BROADWAY is geared to audiences of all ages, offering insights from Irving Berlin, Bert Williams and Yip Harburg through to Agnes DeMille, Hal Prince and George C. Wolfe, while spanning a century of musical productions from Show Boat , Anything Goes and On the Town to Company , Hair and The Producers .

EPISODES

• Give My Regards to Broadway (1893-1927) – Monday, November 1, at 9 pm

This episode features interviews with Irving Berlin’s daughter Mary Ellen Barrett, Ziegfeld Follies girls Doris Eaton and Dana O’Connell, New Yorker critic Brendan Gill, theater artist Al Hirschfeld, composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, and Ziegfeld’s daughter Patricia Z. Stephenson.

• Syncopated City (1919-1933) – Monday, November 1, at 10 pm

This episode has interviews with actor Carol Channing, the Gershwins’ sister Frances Gershwin Godowsky, “Al Jolson & Company” creator Stephen Mo Hanan, critic Margo Jefferson, writer Miles Krueger, New Yorker theater critic John Lahr, radio host/music critic Jonathan Schwartz, theater historians Max Wilk and Robert Kimball, and director/producer George C. Wolfe.

• I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’ (1929-1942) – Monday, November 8, at 9 pm

This episode features interviews with actors and originals “Porgy” Todd Duncan and “Bess” Anne Brown, playwright Jerome Chodorov, film director Stanley Donon, writer Philip Furia, actors Kitty Carlisle Hart, Carol Channing and June Havoc, actors/producers John Houseman and Tim Robbins, and composter/lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

• Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’(1943-1960) – Monday, November 8, at 10 pm

This episode features interviews with actors Julie Andrews and John Raitt, writers/lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green, choreographers Agnes de Mille, Jerome Robbins and Michael Kidd, Oscar Hammerstein's grandson Andy Hammerstein, author James Michener, theater historian Steve Nelson, composer/Richard Rodgers' daughter Mary Rodgers and conductor Michael Tilson-Thomas.

• Tradition (1957-1979) – Monday, November 15, at 9 pm

This episode features interviews with actors Joel Grey, Jerry Orbach and Ben Vereen, composer Marvin Hamlisch, producer Hal Prince, writer Frank Rich, lyricist Stephen Sondheim and director Julie Taymor.

• Putting It Together (1980-present) airs Monday, November 15, at 10 pm

This episode features interviews with writer/producer Mel Brooks, actors Kristin Chenoweth, Nathan Lane and actor/bookwriter Harvey Fierstein, Walt Disney Corporation CEO Michael Eisner, composer/lyricist Jerry Herman, playwright/director James Lapine, producer Rocco Landesman, director Arthur Laurents, Nederlander Theaters chairman James Nederlander Sr., director Susan Stroman and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Underwriters: Capital One, National Endowment for the Humanities, Dorothy and Lewis Cullman, the Shubert Organization, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Philanthropic Fund, Judith B. Resnick, Vivian Milstein, Rosalind P. Walter, Bob Boyett, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation Inc., Mary and Marvin Davidson, Allen & Company, the DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, the Karen A. and Kevin W. Kennedy Foundation, Mary Rodgers and Henry Guettel, Public Television Viewers, PBS and Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Co-producers: Ghost Light Films, Thirteen/WNET New York, NHK, and BBC in association with Carlton International. Executive producers: Jac Venza and David Horn. Series producers: Michael Kantor. Supervising producer: Bill O’Donnell. Format: CC Stereo. Online: pbs.org