The original Mama Rose in Gypsy. Ethel Merman -1959.

Broadway is fertile ground for songs about mothers and their lives as wives, caregivers, protectors, and doing the best they can.

So who comes to mind when you think about the character of "mother" on the musical stage? Mama Rose? Golde? Kim in Saigon? The resigned mother who lives in Fun Home? Maybe Mama Morton who runs the jail in Chicago? Or might be Anna with the King?
Sometimes happy, sometimes not. Mothers and their children develop many kinds of relationships on stage. This all about them.

American Jukebox® 218

And the Oscar for the Best Song written for a film goes to...

Since the category of "Best Song Written For A Motion Picture" was first established in 1934, some of our most beloved songs have come from the movies. The Continental was the first song to receive the Oscar. For the next 80+ years hundreds of songs have been nominated for the award. The Academy voters pick the winner. But the many of the nominated songs are considered even better than the "winners." In this edition of American Jukebox we look at 29 songs from the movies, both the winners and the nominees. We start with Never On Sunday, "Best Song Oscar" winner in 1960 and work our way through the '60's , '70s, '80s and '90s.

A few musicals, a dozen or so, have been life-changing, mind-blowing shows. Their impact is profound. This is my list. What's yours?

When you're in the theater and suddenly you say to yourself, "where am I?" you have just been transported to that magic place by the confluence of many theatrical elements that make the living stage sometimes breathtaking. I say sometimes, and perhaps even most of the time you may enjoy a show, but it's not life-changing.

On this Broadway Bound I offer my list of 12 musicals that have had a profound effect on me. The oldest is from 1969. The newest is from 2017.

This is my list and is incomplete due to to time constraints. But rest assured, these shows only rarely come along. Spoiler alert. Here they are:

1776
Cabaret
Les Miserables
La Cage aux Folles
Sunset Boulevard
A Chorus Line
Evita
Sweeney Todd
Chaplin
Come From Away
Billy Elliot
Hamilton

Records are set on Broadway: Biggest, most, best, longest, shortest. They're "tops" in their class.

A look at the "record setters," that is, Broadway musicals through the years that set records in one way or another. Some records are for highest grossing musicals, or longest time to sit on your seats to watch the show, or the biggest financial losers, or the longest running shows ever. My two favs are for "highest ticket price" sold at the box office ($998), and the highest average ticket price ($506) for a Broadway show – this is a real surprise.

You'll probably know some of the records they've set but I guarantee you'll be surprised and stunned by others.

Enjoy the show!
Garrett Stack

Our democracy was invaded by domestic terrorists on January 6, 2021. We witnessed in unbelievable, vivid detail just what they were up to and what they hoped to achieve. Like most Americans I was shaken to my core. This program is dedicated to Our American Story, imperfect though it is, we strive to form a more perfect union.

The music here tells our story in joyful and sometimes harsh ways.

Based on extensive work by Record Research, Inc., the 30 most recorded pop Christmas songs are counted down.

If you're familiar with Joel Whitburn's Record Research, Inc., and their decades of analyzing pop, rock and soul Billboard chart performance, then you know this is the recognized authority. For this Top-30 Christmas Countdown, the team at Record Research took all the albums that have ever charted on the Christmas Charts through 2004, and they painstakingly looked at the titles on all those albums. By tracking the titles and the number of times they appeared, the list was compiled. In this program we do not include Christmas Carols, just secular songs on the list associated with the Christmas season.

You can probably guess many titles on the countdown. The artists that record them, however, are extremely varied. They range from classics like Perry Como to Euro-sound Boney M and all points between. And worth noting, the older the song the more times it is likely to have been recorded. Take a song like Santa Claus Is Coming To Town or Winter Wonderland, both written in the 1934, and you can see they have a better chance of being high on the list simply because they were around for 70 years, and recorded hundreds of times, when this list was made.

For the record, Silent Night is the most recorded Christmas song ever, if not the most recorded song of all in any genre, period. Considered a Christmas carol, however, it is not on this countdown. For that matter, neither is Joy To The World, O Holy Night or any other carols we love.

Get ready to count down the top-30 pop Christmas songs of all time, with three "countdown extras" (indicated by Xtra) included for the fun of it. Merry Christmas.

Garrett Stack

Broadway Bound #200 -- A regular 2-hour edition of the greatest Broadway music from yesterday and today -- Originally aired on WMNR on Jan. 4, 2014.

Broadway songs guaranteed to make you smile.

There are lots of songs from the musical theater that just make you smile. They're clever, funny, tongue-in-cheek, or just infectious - in a good way. These 27 always get me to smile. From the oldest one on the list, 76 Trombones with Robert Preston, to the newest production of My Fair Lady where Norbert Leo Butz steals the show with Get Me To The Church On Time. Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera, as mother and daughter, come to realize they very much the same in The Apple Doesn't Fall while Karen Ziemba has found the cure for what ails her, Arthur In The Afternoon.
Classics like Honey Bun, Anything Goes, A Spoonful of Sugar, Bosom Buddies, and His Love Makes Me Beautiful tickle your funny bone every time.
Listen to these gems and get ready to smile.

New York City was a mess in the 1980's. Broadway attendance plummeted. Some predicted the end of the American Musical. In spite of all that, a few blockbuster musicals emerged during that decade and saved the Great White Way just in time to make its historic turnaround in the 1990's.

Broadway Bound #264 -- Survivor: Broadway in the '80s

With Broadway attendance figures and revenues constantly setting records in the 21st century, it's hard to imagine that just 30 years ago we almost witnessed the end of this American art form. New York City's most important tourist destination is the Broadway Theater District, the blocks surrounding Times Square that house 40 Broadway Theaters and many more smaller venues. But in the 1980's parts of the city were riddled by crime, filth, and decadence. The Times Square area was among the worst.

42nd Street was home to pimps, prostitutes, panhandlers, peep shows and hustlers. Garbage tossed on the street, urine puddles on sidewalks, derelicts living in boxes and street crime was part of the vibe. Tourism to Broadway dropped. Families would not come. It seemed only the stalwart theater aficionados ventured to shows. Get in, see a show, get out. As a result producers were not funding new works to the degree they had. New shows, especially the more expensive musicals, were disappearing. Some predicted that the American Musical Theater had taken its last gasp.

Fortunately, that was not the case. In spite of all the obstacles many of Broadway's most enduring new musicals opened during the '80s. There were also the revivals. However, there were many musicals most people have never heard of that were nominated for Tony Awards. There simply were so few to choose from that the Tony Committee had to find something to fill the slots. Musicals with titles like Tintypes, Grind, Merlin, Quilters, Starmites, Romance/Romance and Big Deal were all Best Musical nominations during the decade.

But there were also brand new musicals that proved creativity in musical theater was alive and well. Here's a sampling of the best: 42nd Street, Nine, Cats, La Cage aux Folles, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera, Sunday in the Park With George, Into the Woods, My One and Only, Big River and Dreamgirls. Audiences supported these shows and kept the lights burning.

On this edition of Broadwaty Bound we salute the '80s musicals that held down the fort for more than a decade providing reason for the Broadway Renaissance of the 1990's that continues to this day.

Imagine a life without Broadway Music. Now imagine being stranded on desert island . If you could have your Broadway music in a very limited amount, what would you choose? These are mine.

Broadway musicals have no shortage of hope and happiness expressed in song.

Hope and happiness are two human feelings that find their way to the Broadway stage over and over - of course. From Get Happy and Happy Time, Seize the Day, and Open a New Window, 29 songs capture hope and happiness in very upbeat ways. Classics like You'll Never Walk Alone and Climb Every Mountain, join self-esteem affirmations like Beautiful.

Get a boost to the drearies on this edition of Broadway Bound.

Pretty much, these songs, selected from Broadway and off-Broadway musicals, are easy to listen to. They won't put you to sleep, but you won't run to turn them off either. Old and new.

Some musicals have songs that you have to be in the mood for. They may be very intense, layered and loud. That's all good, when you want it. These songs, culled from a couple dozen shows, tend not be intense but rather melodic and easy to listen to. The show starts with Daddy Warbucks, Reid Shelton, singing Something Was Missing from Annie, and ends up with three tunes from Summer: The Donna Summer Musical - easy ones.

A look at The Drowsy Chaperone, Pretty Woman - The Musical, and classics like Funny Girl, 42nd Street, Sweet Charity and Promises Promises are samples of what's in store. A surprise comes from Parade, the 1960 off-Broadway revue, Jerry Herman's first foray into show music.

Lots of rain, storms, and sun, but how about Noah in the flood or Dorothy in a tornado? Broadway musicals got 'em.

There is practically nothing you can't find in song. The weather is not exempt. Since Stormy Weather and Heat Wave were introduced in 1933 we've had many more weather songs. The '40s gave us I Got the Sun In the Mornin' and the Moon at Night and It's Too Darn Hot. Irving Berlin gave us It's A Lovely Day Today in Call Me Madam and Andrea McArdle forever charmed us saying the sun'll come out Tomorrow. That whorehouse in Texas was some hot place with 20 Fans a-turnin' in every room but nothing compares to Viet Nam's scorchers when The Heat Is On In Saigon.
From Oh, What a Beautiful Morning to A Grand Night For Singing this edition of Broadway Bound illustrates the breadth of lyrics and music that once again keeps the musical theater interesting and fresh.

Where's off- Broadway? It's in New York right in the heart of the Broadway theater district. Off-Broadway refers to the number seats in a theater (100-499), not the location of the theater. Because off-Broadway theaters cost less to operate, producers often mount shows there. Some shows really take hold and move to the larger more expensive theaters on “Broadway" with seats 500+. Other shows are not meant for the much larger Broadway houses. They're intended for smaller venues and stay there.

Everything heard on this edition of Broadway Bound is from off-Broadway cast recordings.