Cy Coleman got his start as a prodigy playing classical piano. He soon developed a love for jazz and found success in that genre. And then he began writing popular songs and Broadway musicals. He is best known for his early singles, Witchcraft and The Best Is Yet to Come, and for such musicals as Wildcat, Sweet Charity and Barnum.

We all know a couple of their shows — Cabaret, Chicago — and a couple of their songs — ‘New York, New York’, ‘All That Jazz’ — but many people don’t know their names. Their shows often deal with unlikely subjects for Broadway. Think The Kiss of the Spider Woman, which got its start in Toronto. Think Liza Minnelli, who says they created her. Meet John Kander and Fred Ebb and the brilliant music they produced. You’ll find lots of razzle dazzle, plenty of humour, and unusual beauty.

Jerry Herman set out to write musicals that would make people feel better and leave them humming tunes. One of the few songwriters who wrote both music and lyrics, he is best known for three of Broadways most successful shows: Hello, Dolly; Mame; and La Cage aux Folles. But some of his lesser-known shows are also filled with beautiful and memorable songs. Using photos and video clips, Linda Beck will tell us about Jerry Herman’s life and share examples of his songs.

Would you be surprised to learn that popular songs are often based on melodies by classical composers? Music from the 17th Century and onward has made its way into the the popular canon. For example, Muzio Clemente's "Rondo" from 1797 was reborn in 1965 as "A Groovy Kind of Love." Enjoy Linda's selection of pop songs and the classics that inspired them.

We can save time, waste time, even kill time. It is a topic for philosophy and for physics. But above all it is central to music, and it is the subject of many songs and compositions. Join Linda as she shares some music and reflections about time.

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From Pete Seeger to Paul McCartney to Lerner and Loewe, from Dorothy Parker to Billy Collins to Nora Ephron, everyone had something entertaining to say about the changes we face as we age This presentation includes video clips of songs and poems from Broadway and elsewhere.

Elders and youth have complained about each other since the days of Socrates, and much literature has dramatized the conflict. Songs, too, showcase the different points of view of parents and children. Linda takes a mostly light-hearted look at the generation gap, as portrayed in songs and prose.

From classical music through jazz and rock and roll, the weather has inspired composers through the ages. Linda shares a collection of songs and orchestral pieces which feature all kinds of weather.

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Stephen Sondheim has had a lasting influence on musical theater. In his shows, story and characters are developed not only through the action and dialogue of the play, but also through the melodies and lyrics of his songs. His songs all serve a purpose within their respective plays and are best appreciated in context.. His one song that became a major hit, Send In the Clowns, is generally not understood by its fans. Linda presents an introduction to his work, with many examples of hummable songs.

Oscar Hammerstein II was born into a family that was deeply involved in the business of theater in New York City, and he knew every aspect of that business.. Today we think of him as the lyricist in the Rodgers and Hammerstein duo, but that work is a small part of his involvement in theatre and his influence on it.

Born to the wealthiest family in Peru, Indiana, Cole Porter enjoyed life at exalted levels of society, both in the United States and in Europe. He was famous for his witty and suggestive lyrics as well as his beautiful, memorable melodies. A devastating riding accident in 1937 left him physically damaged but did not impair his creative genius. Photographs, video clips and samples of his songs add to the discussion of Cole Porter’s personal and professional life.

Shakespeare’s plays often included music, but no one thought of adapting a Shakespeare play into musical comedy until Rodgers and Hart created The Boys from Syracuse in 1938. It is a close adaptation of The Comedy of Errors. Since that show’s success, many other adaptations have been written; the most successful are West Side Story and Kiss Me, Kate, based on Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew respectively. In these three cases, dream teams of Broadway talent created lasting masterpieces.

Fred Astaire’s career began in Vaudeville when he was six years old and danced with his older sister, Adele; it continued on Broadway and went on to great success in the movies. Besides his ten movies with Ginger Rogers, he starred with Eleanor Powell, Rita Hayworth, Cyd Charisse, and others. And his dancing career was followed by serious acting, even earning him an Academy Award nomination for his work in On the Beach. Astaire had a lasting influence on dance in America. Bob Fosse and Michael Jackson are among the dancers and choreographers who have expressed their debt to Fred Astaire.

Rodgers and Hart met in 1919, when Lorenz Hart was working on shows for Columbia University and Richard Rodgers was still a high school student. The two found they had a similar vision of what musical comedies could be and they began working together. They had a song placed in a Broadway show that very year. Six years later their first full Broadway show made them famous; that was followed by many more successes on Broadway and in Hollywood. They wrote more than five hundred songs together before Hart’s alcoholism led to his early death.

Sara and Gerald Murphy were at the centre of the arts world in France in the 1920s. The children of wealthy New York businessmen, the Murphys moved to Paris and then to Cap D’Antibes, where their generosity supported such friends as the writers Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald; the painters Pablo Picasso and Fernand Leger; and the composers Igor Stravinsky and Cole Porter. The tragedy that struck their family inspired Archibald Macleish’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, J.B.

Most of the standards of the Great American Songbook were written for Tin Pan Alley and Broadway. Both terms refer to geographical locations, but their meanings go beyond geography and are linked to styles of music. A look at the locations, the personalities, and especially the songs will acquaint you with Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and many other songwriters.

Known for his hilarious bumptious and vulgar movies, Mel Brooks does not advertise his more serious side. Even the silliest of his movies make brilliant use of music and songs (many written by Brooks himself). He also created Brooksfilms, a production company that is responsible for 84 Charing Cross Road and The Elephant Man, among other films. This look at Brooks’s life and work focuses especially on his use of music.

The creator of Jeeves, that perfect gentleman’s gentleman, and Bertie Wooster, his ‘mentally negligible’ employer, was already famous as a Broadway writer and lyricist before these fictional characters became known. He used elegant prose and inventive figures of speech to build complex, farcical plots. Wodehouse’s career – and his equanimity – were badly hurt when he was accused of collaborating with his Nazi captors during World War II, and he spent the rest of his life in the United States, still writing successfully about his imagined world of British landed gentry.

When Jerome Kern was asked what was Irving Berlin's place in American music, he said, "Irving Berlin has no place in American music. Irving Berlin IS American music." That was a century ago, but Berlin's music is still known and loved. The holidays would not be the same without "White Christmas" and "Easter Parade." He lived from 1888 to 1889 and wrote and produced songs and musicals from 1919 to 1962.

Songs of friendship to come.

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