On Broadway! A Salute to the Broadway Musical!
Presented by Jacquelyne Silver
Thursday, April 8, 2021
Individual tickets: $17/22
Curtain up! Light the lights! The sparkling magic of the Broadway Musical has held the world in thrall from its early beginnings in vaudeville right up to the present. It is America’s proud gift to musical culture—it speaks of the high energy, the indomitable spirit and the optimism that is America. Jacquelyne Silver will take you on an imaginative and colorful journey through the beginnings of the Broadway Musical to today—and a fascinating trip it will be, with film clips and recorded music of some of the greatest shows in our history—curtain up!
The first staged musical was in 1866 with The Black Crook, which was a dance spectacle with music and a bevy of scantily clad dancing girls in “short skirts, with exceedingly indelicate attitudes.” Meanwhile, in 1904, the young George M. Cohan showed his brilliance onstage in his show Little Johnny Jones. Kurt Weill produced his bewitching Three Penny Opera, there was Sigmund Romberg’s opulent Student Prince, and Franz Lehar’s stunning Merry Widow; then Jerome Kern topped it all off with his remarkable Show Boat that changed the direction of the Broadway Musical.
Program:
Introduction to Musical Theater
The Black Crook, Charles M. Barras, Georges Jacobi
Little Johnny Jones, George M. Cohan
The Student Prince, Sigmund Romberg, Dorothy Donnelly
The Merry Widow, Franz Lehar, Viktor Leon, Leo Stein
Show Boat, Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II
Open a list of selected Athenaeum resources on Broadway, including books and CDs.
The lecture will be livestreamed via YouTube Live. Ticket holders will receive a link before the lecture via email. Following the lecture, ticket holders will have 48-hour access to a recording.
About Jacquelyne Silver:
Pianist and stage personality Jacquelyne Silver has performed at the major music centers of North America. A graduate of The Juilliard School, she worked in close collaboration with such luminaries as Leonard Bernstein, Luciano Pavarotti, Benny Goodman, Marilyn Horne, Dame Joan Sutherland, Barry Tuckwell, and Tony Randall. She has been a guest on The Tonight Show, The Dick Cavett Show, and The Alan King Show, as well as on radio and television specials. Her tailor-made series at the Athenaeum as well as her one woman shows have been performed for sold-out audiences at the Cygnet Theatre, the La Jolla Playhouse, the San Diego Repertory Theatre, as well as The Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles.