This Peabody Award-winning film is the first of its kind to examine the phenomenon that, over the fifty-year period of its development, the songs of the Broadway musical were created almost exclusively by Jewish Americans. These are the popular songs that our nation took to war, sang to their children at bedtime, and whistled while waiting for the bus – taken in total they comprise the vast majority of what is now commonly referred to as “The American Songbook.”
Narrated by Joel Grey, the film features interviews with Sheldon Harnick, John Kander, Andrew Lippa, Stephen Schwartz, Phyllis Newman, Charles Strouse, Harold Prince, Maury Yeston, Mary Rodgers Guettel, Ernie Harburg, Marc Shaiman, David Shire, Stephen Sondheim, Mel Brooks, Stephen Schwartz and many others. Dynamic footage includes performances by stars such as David Hyde Pierce, Matthew Broderick and Kelli O’Hara, Zero Mostel, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Nathan Lane, Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, Barbra Streisand, Joel Grey, Dick Van Dyke, Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel.
December 6th, 2012 screening in Philadelphia
Aired on PBS Great Performances on January 1, 2013 at 9:30 pm
