... and new a word from the fairest of Dames:
Broadway: The American Musical
Legendary star of stage and screen Julie Andrews to host landmark series Broadway: The American Musical
Premiering In October On PBS Stations
Julie Andrews first graced the Broadway stage at age 19, with a star-making performance in The Boyfriend. With her unique presence and astonishing four-octave vocal range, she went on to dazzle audiences as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and Guenevere in Camelot. Taking Hollywood by storm just as she had conquered Broadway, her performance in the movie adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway blockbuster The Sound of Music - still high on the list of all-time box office champs - forever endeared her to audiences throughout the world. This fall, the Academy Award-winning star of stage, film and television will host BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL, a six-part, six-hour PBS documentary series on the history of the American musical. Presented by Thirteen/WNET New York, the series premieres Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, October 19, 20 and 21 at 9 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings).
"I am delighted to play a role in such an ambitious and important television project, and to `return' to Broadway once again," says Andrews, whose real-life return to Broadway in 1995 with Victor/Victoria thrilled audiences after her three-decade absence from the Great White Way. "Musical theater means so much to me. There's nothing quite like a Broadway show to make our spirits soar and give us insight into America's very culture and history. It will be a pleasure to serve as the PBS ambassador for the Broadway musical."
BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL is the first documentary series to tell the epic history of the American musical in its entirety. Roughly covering the period since the renaming of Longacre Square to Times Square in 1904, the centennial saga is chronicled through first-person accounts from Broadway's leading luminaries and illustrated by a remarkable collection of rare archival footage, personal correspondences, diary excerpts, newsreels, private home movies and much more. From Show Boat, Oklahoma! and On the Town to West Side Story, A Chorus Line and Wicked - and from Irving Berlin, Fanny Brice and Ethel Waters to Ethel Merman, Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber - the series captures not only a century of theater history, but also American history.
A co-production of Ghost Light Films and Thirteen/WNET New York, NHK, and BBC in association with Carlton International., the six films will be the highlight of Thirteen's culture and arts programming, this fall on PBS. BROADWAY was created by filmmaker Michael Kantor, whose credits include work on The West (executive producer Ken Burns); Ric Burns' New York series; and Quincy Jones: In the Pocket, which he wrote, produced and directed for the American Masters series. The series will be released on home video and DVD by PBS Home Video. In addition to a companion five-CD box set, a lavishly illustrated coffee table book created by Kantor and co-writer Laurence Maslon will be published this fall by Bulfinch Press in conjunction with the broadcast series.
"Julie Andrews has long been synonymous with Broadway and PBS," says executive producer Jac Venza. "She has also been a great friend of Thirteen's Great Performances series in such unforgettable programs as Julie Andrews in Concert, Celebrating Oscar Hammerstein II, Julie Andrews Back on Broadway, and two My Favorite Broadway concerts. It's a thrill to have someone of her caliber - such an important figure in Broadway's history and someone with such extensive personal knowledge - accept the role of leading lady for our BROADWAY series. We couldn't be more delighted or honored."
BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL is a co-production of Ghost Light Films and Thirteen/WNET New York, NHK, and BBC in association with Carlton International. Michael Kantor is series producer and director. Bill O'Donnell is supervising producer. Jac Venza and David Horn are executive producers.
Funding for the series was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Dorothy and Lewis Cullman, the Shubert Organization, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts, Judith B. Resnick, the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Philanthropic Fund, Vivian Milstein, Rosalind P. Walter, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation Inc., Mary and Marvin Davidson, Allen & Company, the DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, the Karen A. and Kevin W. Kennedy Foundation, Mary Rodgers and Henry Guettel, public television viewers and PBS.
