Look at the list of Broadway musicals running in 1959. Blink, and look at it again. Whether it’s to appreciate the role call of songwriters at work in that single calendar year, or the array of stars bringing that work to life, or the seemingly impossible list of wonderful shows - and not one of them a revival - one cannot help but be astonished. It’s a breathtaking barometer of the level of genius at work within a single season.
1959. The hula-hoop was new, the Barbie Doll was new and I was new. Having loved Broadway music for as long as I can remember, I became curious to see which musicals shared my birth year. When I discovered more than 20 musicals were playing in 1959, some new, some still running from previous seasons, my imagination took flight.
Together with Alex Rybeck and Sara Louise Lazarus, I set about creating a musical collage, one that might highlight the delicious diversity and colors of the collective Broadway songbooks of 1959. I also aspired to pay homage to the very structure of the classic 1950s Broadway musical, to map our musical trajectory around the traditional “boy meets girl” plot line, formatted with the hallmarks of the musical comedy “Overture,” “Intermission,” “Entr’acte” and “Curtain Call.”
