Ted Otten

If you hadn’t noticed, July just happened recently. To welcome it on this week’s Dress Circle (7/6 7:00 p.m.), we’re looking at some of the musicals that have opened in New York this month. We don’t have an exhaustive list, but we were still able to amass a baker’s dozen of songs that span 157 years of musical history.

We’re going where the “neon lights are bright” and “there’s magic in the air” on this week’s Dress Circle (6/29 7:00 p.m.) as we look at songs about Broadway from stage and screen. Even though a great deal of music has been written about being on the stage and theatres, we decided to limit it to only those songs that expressly mention “Broadway” in their titles.

We’re celebrating the career of composer/lyricist William Finn, whom we lost in April, on this week’s Dress Circle (6/22 7:00 p.m.) with thirteen songs from a variety of his often autobiographical musicals.

We decided to get everyone prepared for summer on this week’s Dress Circle (6/15 7:00 p.m.), since it officially begins on June 20th. To do this, we’ve turned to “summer songs” from thirteen diverse musicals.

This week’s Dress Circle (6/8 7:00 p.m.) is a return to one of our favorite topics, “Involuntary Musical Imagery” otherwise known as stuck song syndrome, sticky music, and cognitive itch, or, as the Germans call them, orhwurm. Of course, their earworms. Those pesky songs that you love to hate. You hear them, and they stay with you for a very long time afterwards.

Happy June! For Broadway openings, it’s not so happy, but we’ve still got a program of songs from a few of the shows that opened in New York in June on this week’s Dress Circle (6/1 7:00 p.m.).

One recurring theme we’re hearing for this year’s Memorial Day is about “getting away” for the weekend, so on this week’s Dress Circle (5/25 7:00 p.m.), since it’s Memorial Day weekend, we’re going on a Memorial Day Getaway with the musicals.

“Every Single Moment” we find that “This Is the Moment” for several good songs from some musicals, and we’d like to ask you to “Take the Moment” and join us for this week’s Dress Circle (5/18 7:00 p.m.) when we’ll be musically “In the Moment.”

You know that we can’t pass up some “calendar art,” and on this week’s Dress Circle (5/11 7:00 p.m.), we’ve held true to our urges and compiled a show of songs about “mother” from the musicals for Mother’s Day.

Happy May! As always, we’re celebrating the month by looking at some of the musicals that opened in New York this month on this week’s Dress Circle (5/4 7:00 p.m.). The list of May openings is not extensive because of Tony nominations and voting. The cut-off for nominations this year was April 27th, so a show opening after that would be eligible for the following year’s award if the nominating committee and voters remembered it. We still have eleven shows represented, spanning 119 years of musical history.