Ted Otten

We’re beginning October with our regular feature as we look at a baker’s dozen songs from some of the musicals opening this month on this week’s Dress Circle (10/6 7:00 p.m.). Our final playlist covers 121 years of Broadway history.

Bing Crosby only appeared on Broadway once, and there was no recording from that concert with his second family and a few friends in 1976, so on this week’s Dress Circle (9/29 7:00 p.m.) we’re turning to some of his film songs to fill the hour.

Burt Bacharach has been called “The King of Easy Listening” having amassed 73 Top 40 hits in the U.S. and 52 in the United Kingdom. His songs also appeared in eight productions on Broadway as well as in 772 film and television soundtracks, and on this week’s Dress Circle (9/22 7:00 p.m.) we’re going to look some of them.

Shakespeare seems to get credit for a great many things, but this time, he deserves it even if the quote is a bit “off.” We’re “Gilding the Lily” on this week’s Dress Circle (8/15 7:00 p.m.), well, we’ve amassed songs about beauty and its secrets, dressing to impress or excess, and a few make-up tips from a variety of musicals.

It's back to school time, so we've turned to musicals from Broadway, London's West End, television, and film for a selection of songs to illuminate several aspects of the happy event.

Even though September is a quiet month for Broadway musical openings, we've turned to twelve shows covering 123 years of Broadway history from 1898 to 2021 for some wonderful songs.

August is Happiness Happens month, and nothing makes us happier than a musical, so on this week’s Dress Circle (8/25 7:00 p.m.), we’re looking to fourteen songs about happiness from a variety of musicals.

Broadway lovers are all buzzing since it was announced that Kristen Chenoweth would be coming back in a new Stephen Schwartz musical during the 2025-2026 season. Starring opposite F. Murray Abraham, she'll be Jackie Siegel in a musical adaptation of the documentary "The Queen of Versailles" which seems to be about the Siegels and their difficulties in trying to build their $100,000,000 home in Orlando, Florida. To that end, we'll be sampling songs from many of her stage appearances such as "Wicked" as well as a few of her solo CDs.

We're celebrating the composing skills of James "Jimmy" McHugh who wrote over 500 songs during his career in the early part of the 20th century, may of them still considered standards. He wrote for stage and screen as well as well as many "pop" standards.

We've combined the New York musical openings for July and August (for some reason) and arrived at a playlist of 11 shows spanning 153 years of Broadway history. We've also decided to turn to the overtures or opening orchestral pieces to give a fuller sense of these scores.