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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’.