Theater

His Broadway musicals include Bye, Bye Birdie, Annie, Applause, It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman, and Golden Boy, which originally opened on Broadway in 1964 and starred Sammy Davis Jr. The show will be revived later this month by City Center Encores in New York. Strouse also composed music for film and TV, including "Those Were the Days," the theme song for TV's All in the Family.

Broadway music director Paul Gemingani. He's been the musical director of almost every Stephen Sondheim work over the last 30 years. His other productions include Kiss Me, Kate, Crazy for You and High Society. Last year he received a lifetime achievement award at the Tony Awards. This interview first aired May 30, 2001.

The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. is in the midst of a festival of Steven Sondheim musicals. Company, Sweeney Todd and Sunday in the Park with George have already been featured. Still to be staged are A Little Night Music, Merrily We Roll Along and Passion. We rebroadcast our interview with composer and lyricist Steven Sondheim. He discusses his work on West Side Story and Gypsy, for which he wrote the lyrics, and his own musical Sweeney Todd. Sondheim learned his craft from Oscar Hammerstein, who was a neighbor and surrogate father to him. This interview first aired Nov. 10, 1988.

We continue our American Popular song series, with a program about composer Will Marion Cook. He was born in 1869 and was part of the first generation born after slavery. Cook was one of the innovators of ragtime song, and helped introduce ragtime to Broadway. Cook wrote In Dahomey the first full-length broadway musical written and performed by African Americans. It opened on Broadway in 1903. Some of Cook's songs reflect the racial stereotypes and dialect of the time.

This Christmas week we rebroadcast our series on American popular song. This one profiles composer Jerome Kern. He wrote the songs All the Things You are, Can't Help Lovin' That Man, I'm Old-Fashioned, Ol' Man River, and The Way You Look Tonight. A number of those songs are from the broadway musical Showboat which he wrote. We'll focus on the music he wrote before then, before 1927.

John Cameron Mitchell wrote, directed and starred in the off-broadway hit rock musical, –Hedwig and the Angry Inch— (with songs by Stephen Trask). The play has just been made into a new film, also directed by and starring Mitchell. The film won the Audience Award for Drama and the Directing Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. The story is about Hedwig, a German immigrant living in a trailer in Kansas, the victim of a botched sex change operation. With the help of her band, the Angry Inch, she tells the story of her life.

Casting director and actress Joanna Merlin has written a new guide for actors, Auditioning: An Actor-Friendly Guide (Vintage Books). Merlin was casting director for Harold Prince and his productions of Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Evita, and more. She casted films, as well as acted in films and on television.

Brooks has made some of the funniest films in movie history, including The Producers, Young Frankenstein, and Blazing Saddles. His film The Producers has been turned into a Broadway musical and is now the hottest show on Broadway. The show has broken records; earlier this month, The Producers won 12 Tony Awards. Brooks won Tony Awards for Best Book (with Thomas Meehan) and Best Score. Now, Brooks is one of the few people who have won a Tony Award, an Academy Award, a Grammy Award and an Emmy Award.

Broadway music director Paul Gemignani has been the musical director of almost every Stephen Sondheim work over the last 30 years. His other productions include Kiss Me, Kate, Crazy for You, and High Society. Next Sunday Gemignani will receive a lifetime achievement award at the Tony Awards.

Chicago's 'Steppenwolf Theatres production of One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest is also on Broadway. . .We feature interviews with actor Gary sinise who stars in it, and director Terry Kinney. Steppenwolf is an actor-driven theatre known for its ensemble acting, and cutting-edge acting style.