Kander and Ebb

Happy New Year! (We hope.) We're still showcasing musicals that opened each month on the Dress Circle (1/4 7:00 p.m.), but instead of framing the program with the "oldest" and "newest" openings, we decided, instead, to pick a random sample of musicals we haven't showcased in a while to present their overtures and opening numbers or prologues to give a bigger picture of entire piece.

For many, this time of year features a whirlwind of parties. We really don’t have first-hand knowledge of that, so we had to turn to the musicals on this week’s Dress Circle (12/28 7:00 p.m.) for some help with what parties might entail.

In the past, we’ve looked at various types of songs found in musicals such as the “I want” songs where a character lets the audience know his or her reasons for doing things. In this week’s Dress Circle (7/14 7:00 p.m.), we’re going to be looking at ‘story songs” which are, oddly enough, songs that tell stories. Sometimes, those stories are life-histories, but many times, they act as allegories.

We’re turning to the first of two programs on this week’s Dress Circle (10/19 7:00 p.m.) that will feature some of our favorite songs from stage and screen musicals and soundtracks. Michael is up first, and he’s chosen 13 vastly different songs that really do express his rather eclectic tastes, and by no means is this even the tip of the iceberg of the list of his “favorites.”

Although it doesn't happen as much as it once did, hit songs from the musicals do occasionally make the Billboard charts, and we'll be looking at a least a dozen of them on this week's Dress Circle (10/12 7:00 p.m.). We're including three number one hits in Louis Armstrong's version of "Hello, Dolly!", The 5th Dimension's version of "Aquarius / Let the Sun Shine In" from "Hair," and "We Don't Talk About Bruno" from "Encanto."

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.).

Sometimes, one just needs a place, a special place to find solace and comfort, and we’re going to look at fourteen of our favorite places to escape on this week’s Dress Circle (4/20 7:00 p.m.).

Over the years, we’ve often said that pieces were some of our “favorites,” and we do have many. We tried to wrangle them into a manageable size, but we still had enough for several programs. With this in mind, this week’s Dress Circle (2/23 7:00 p.m.) will look at some of our favorite overtures and opening numbers because we had far fewer of those than we did individual songs.

41 years ago on a Thursday evening, the first presentation of The Dress Circle aired, and on this week’s program (2/16 7:00 p.m.), we’re going to celebrate that inauspicious beginning with songs from some of the musicals that were playing around the time our program began.

Happy 2025! At least, we’re hoping that it will be for everyone. We’re welcoming January as we always do on The Dress Circle (1/5 7:00 p.m.) with songs from just a few of the shows that opened this month.