As it’s Memorial Day weekend, we turned to the musicals to see what they had to offer, and we found a variety of shows about American servicemen and women and their experiences for this week’s Dress Circle (5/30 7:00 p.m.). The main show is Irving Berlin’s World War II fundraiser, “This Is the Army.” Composed to raise funds for the war effort (just as Berlin’s WWI show “Yip Yip Yaphank”), the show began in New York, traveled across the country, and then to Europe and raised over $2 million ($30 million in today’s money) along the way. A few of the songs from this show include “The Army’s Made a Man Out of Me,” “I’m Getting Tired, so I Can Sleep,” “This is the Army Mr. Jones,” and “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” performed by Berlin. We’ll also hear the title song from another service Musical, the Air Force’s “Winged Victory. Some of the other shows we’re including are “Over Here!”, a musical by the Sherman brothers looking at what was happening in the States during the war, “Ankles Aweigh,” a wartime romance, and the show that is considered the end of the “war musicals” on Broadway, Harold Rome’s “Call Me Mister.” This show looks at the servicemen and women returning home and the lives that they left behind. It includes the wonderfully moving “Going Home Train” which we’ll be featuring.
What's ahead on The Classical Network? Catch some of these great programs coming your way. Information on evening concert broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and other nationally broadcast performances can be found on our home page.
The Dress Circle: Musicals for Memorial Day
