Michael Kownacky

We’re continuing with our celebration of Leonard Bernstein on this week’s Dress Circle (8/26  7:00 p.m.) by looking at two of his scores.  One is the “Mass” that he wrote with Stephen Schwartz that opened The Kennedy Center in Washington in 1971 with selections from the original 1971recording as well as the 2004 recording.  Confusing to many, this wonderful celebration is less an actual mass than it is a lesson about finding sanity out of chaos which is so desperately needed today.  

The first part of our centennial celebration of the life and career of Leonard Bernstein is this week’s Dress Circle (8/19 7:00 p.m.).  Although he is probably best known for his work in the classical music realm, we’ll be focusing on his works for the stage, and this first program will look at a variety of his musicals and will feature performances from “On the Town” (1944), “Peter Pan" (1950), “Wonderful Town” (1953), “Candide” (1956), and “West Side Story” (1957).  For this program, we’ll be featuring original cast, revival cast, and studio cast recordings.  

Put on your dancing shoes!  No, Julian Marsh is not doing a show; they’re doin’ choreography on this week’s Dress Circle (8/12 7:00 p.m.)  There was a time when just about every show included a ballet or extended dance scenes, and we’ll be sampling some of them this week.  Some of those dances include the “Sadie Hawkins’ Day Ballet” from “Li’l Abner,” the “Halloween Interlude” Dance from “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” the “Twins Ballet” from “The Boys from Syracuse,” and from “Make a Wish,” “The Sale Ballet.”  

You may not know the composer’s name on this week’s Dress Circle (8/5 7:00 p.m.), but you’re sure to know many of the songs penned by the wonderful James “Jimmy” McHugh.  With lyricists like Dorothy Fields, Harold Adamson, and Ted Koehler, McHugh’s prolific career spanned three decades with songs for the stage and screen.  Join us as we celebrate the career of this wonderful composer with songs that appeared in the films “Higher and Higher” and “Bring on the Girls” as well as the revue of his music entitled “Lucky in the Rain.”  

We’ll be looking at July and August together for our show openings on this week’s Dress Circle (7/29 7:00 p.m.) since Broadway openings slow during the summer months with the exception of this year where there will be no fewer than four new musicals opening.  However, since they haven’t opened yet, we don’t have any music from them and won’t be mentioning them.  The “summer shows” we will be mentioning include the 1997 revival of “1776,” the riotous revue “Two on the Aisle,” one of Langston Hughes’ Broadway musicals “Simply Heavenly,” and the high-energy “Hairspray.”  

The Dress Circle will shine a spotlight on Glenn Close this week (7/22 7:00 p.m.) in performances which might be unfamiliar to many, her outings in Broadway musicals with selections from the Richard Rodgers and Martin Charnin musical about Henry VIII entitled “Rex” where she played Princess Mary, as Charity Barnum in Cy Coleman and Michael Stewart’s “Barnum,” and her much lauded performance as Norma Desmund in “Sunset Boulevard” by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Don Black, and Christopher Hampton.  

We looked at music of George Gershwin last week on The Dress Circle, and this week (7/15 7:00 p.m.) we’ll concentrate on lyrics by his brother Ira but with composers other than George.  Those composers supplying the music for Ira include Kurt Weill, who got Ira to begin writing again after George’s death, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, and Burton Lane.  

The Dress Circle is celebrating the life of George Gershwin this week (7/8  7:00 p.m.) as we approach the 81st anniversary of his untimely death on July 11, 1937 with a program of his lesser-known works with his brother Ira as well as with other lyricists.  Included will be songs from shows like 1925’s “Tip-Toes,” “Sweet Little Devil” from 1924, and “Primrose” written expressly for the London stage in 1924.  Although they were all well received, they have been forgotten.  

It's all about cinema nostalgia on this week’s Dress Circle (7/1  7:00 p.m.) as we sample some popular artists singing theme songs from some memorable films.  The vocalists include Doris Day, Cliff Edwards, Johnny Mathis, Peggy Lee, Bob Hope, and Mario Lanza, and some of film themes are “Dear Heart,” “Wild Is the Wind,” “Golden Earrings,” “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing,” “Because You’re Mine,” and “Three Coins in the Fountain” just to name a few.  Don’t forget to look for us on Facebook as well as our own website at www.DCSRO.com for more information. 

We’re a bit late for Mother’s and Father’s Days, but we’re early for Grandparent’s Day, and it’s really never too late to celebrate “parents” and caregivers in any form.  We’ll do that on The Dress Circle this week (6/24 7:00 p.m.) as we turn to the musicals to take a look at some stage parents from shows like “Honk!”, “Falsettoland,” “Aida,” “Seussical,” “Earnest in Love,” and “Ragtime” with special appearances by Beniamino Gigli and Miss Bette Davis.  Join us to see if it’s true that “Parents Are People too.” 

The delightful stage output of Marvin Hamlisch is the subject of this week’s Dress Circle (6/17  7:00 p.m.)  as we look at songs from familiar shows like “A Chorus Line” (with songs from the Italian and Japanese original cast recordings), “They’re Playing Our Song” and “The Good-bye Girl” (both Broadway and West End casts), and “The Sweet Smell of Success.”  

This week’s Dress Circle (6/10) will begin at 8:00 because of the length of the opera.  Join us as we take a trip to the West End as we look at five “Recent and Current London Musicals.”   We’ll be sampling songs from “Calendar Girls,” a moving musical based on the charming film of the same name and starring some British favorites such as Claire Moore and Joanna Riding.  A revival of “42nd Street” is currently appearing at Drury Lane, and the original cast included Sheena Easton as Dorothy Brock.  

June may not be bustin’ out all over, but it is certainly wet, and as we enter the month of June, this week’s Dress Circle (6/3 7:00 p.m.) will take a look at some of the shows that have opened this month.  The “summer” months are notoriously lean for Broadway openings, and June is the month of the Tony Awards, so shows generally don’t open then since they would have to be remembered for an entire year before voting occurs.  In any case, we will hear songs from musicals including “Godspell,” “I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road,” “Seventeen,” the 1993 revival of “Chicago,”

An “all-star” version of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” to welcome the upcoming Princeton Festival production will air on this week’s Dress Circle (5/27 7:00 p.m.).   We’ll be playing a large percentage of this delightful score using the original Broadway cast, original London cast, the 1996 Broadway revival, and the film if time permits.  

Among the many definitions of a “moment,” the first is “a minute portion or point of time: instant,” and on this week’s Dress Circle (5/20 7:00 p.m.), we’ll be looking at a series of “Moment Moments.”  We were surprised by how important moments are in musicals, and we had many shows from which to choose songs.

Listeners are in store for an hour of wonderful singing on this week’s “Dress Circle”  (5/13  7:00 p.m.) when Dinah Shore is featured singing songs from Broadway and Hollywood including songs from her film outing with Alan Jones and Robert Merrill entitled “Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick."