Carolee Carmello, HELLO, DOLLY!, Tony Awards Get the Spotlight This Spring/Summer on NPR's BROADWAY TO MAIN STREET

In May, June & July the NPR Program "Broadway to Main Street" hosted by Laurence Maslon which airs Sundays at 3PM on NY/Long Island NPR-member station WPPB/88.3FM will feature interviews with Tony Award-nominee & Sweeney Todd star Carolee Carmello (May 28); a retrospective of The 1967 Tony Awards (June 4); a 2017 Tony Awards Special on Tonys Sunday (6/11) with recordings of all the top nominees for Best Musical and the best musical performer nominees including Bette Midler, Josh Groban, Ben Platt and more; a centennial tribute to Ella Fitzgerald (6/18); a Hello, Dolly! themed show (6/25) with musical selections from Carol Channing, Pearl Bailey, Ethel Merman, as well as selections from the new Bette Midler recording; and for a special July 4 holiday weekend show with original 1776 star William Daniels (July 3).

This past Sunday's show featured an Audra McDonald Encore of the 2013 Broadway to Main Street Tribute & this upcoming Sunday's show on 5/21 will feature Will Friedwald, Critic and resident curator of "Clip Joint" at the 92nd Street Y featuring some of the most delectable rare performances from the golden age of TV variety shows.

BROADWAY TO MAIN STREET, in its sixth year of programming, devotes its emphasis to music that began on the Broadway stage. Each episode features a different topic or theme; songs are drawn from classic albums, rare recordings & surprise interpretations, supplemented by host Laurence Maslon's commentary, guest appearances, and news from Broadway. The program is supported by a generous grant from the Ira and Leonore Gershwin Philanthropic Fund and can be found on iTunes, Stitcher, NPR One, and www.broadwaytomainstreet.com.

SPRING/SUMMER PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE:

May 14: Encore: Audra McDonald
An encore of the show's 2013 tribute to the finest singing actress of her generation, to usher in her May 27th performance at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center.

May 21: Video Varieties
Critic and resident curator of "Clip Joint" at the 92nd Street Y, Will Friedwald, joins us in the studio to savor some of the most delectable rare performances from the golden age of TV variety shows: gems from Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand, Ethel Merman and Jimmy Durante, Steve Lawrence and Sammy Davis, Jr., and many more.

May 28: Carolee Carmello
The gifted and beloved Broadway singer (Parade, The Addams Family), currently appearing as Mrs. Lovett in the Off-Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd, shares the breadth of her extraordinary career and personal favorites, live in our studio.

June 4: The 1967 Tony Awards
A retrospective of what Tony was digging a half-century ago; all the major nominees and winners, including Barbara Harris, Joel Grey, Lotte Lenya, and Robert Preston.

June 11: The 2017 Tony Awards
It's the big night and Broadway to Main Street will be the perfect appetizer for the festivities, with recordings of all the major nominees for Best Musical and the best musical performer nominees, including Bette Midler, Josh Groban, Ben Platt and more.

June 18: Centennial C-ELLA-bration
Ella Fitzgerald's immense contribution to the Broadway Songbook is highlighted during this celebration of her centennial. Songs by Porter, Berlin, Loesser, Rodgers and Hart, and more, as only Ella could render them.

June 25: Hello, Dolly!
Jerry Herman's classic is back where it belongs on Broadway. We'll bring a variety of Dollys down the staircase, including Carol Channing, Pearl Bailey, Ethel Merman, as well as selections from the new Bette Midler recording.

July 2: William Daniels
What better way to celebrate the Fourth of July than with the extraordinary lead of the original 1776, William Daniels, in our studio, discussing his extensive career and the special background to this beloved classic? A very special event. Vote "Yes"!

Laurence Maslon is an arts professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, as well as associate chair of the Graduate Acting Program, with an affiliation in the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. He is the host and producer of the weekly radio series, Broadway to Main Street, broadcast on the NPR-affiliate station WPPB-FM. He edited the two-volume set American Musicals (1927-1969) containing sixteen classic Broadway librettos, published by the Library of America in 2014 to national acclaim. He is also the author of the companion book to the recent PBS documentary series, Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle and co-wrote the series with producer/director Michael Kantor. Also with Kantor, he co-wrote the PBS series Make Em Laugh (Emmy nomination) and two episodes of the Emmy-winning Broadway: The American Musical as well as the companion volume (updated edition published by Applause in paperback) and the liner notes for the five-disc box set for the series, released by Sony/Decca. Among his other books are Some Like It Hot: The Official 50th Anniversary Companion (HarperCollins) and The South Pacific Companion and The Sound of Music Companion (Simon and Schuster; revised edition, 2015). Maslon wrote the acclaimed American Masters/Thirteen documentary Richard Rodgers: The Sweetest Sounds and is the editor of Kaufman & Co., the Library of America edition of George S. Kaufman's plays. He was the host for Encores!-in-Seminar at City Center for fifteen years and has written special programming for Lincoln Center Theatre, Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Chicago Humanities Festival, Merkin Concert Hall, the Library of Congress, and Guild Hall in East Hampton. He served on the nominating committee for the Tony Awards from 2007 to 2010. He had written about musical theater and popular culture for the New Yorker, the Huffington Post, Slate, WSJ, American Theatre and Opera News. He is currently writing an American Masters documentary about the life of Sammy Davis, Jr. and a book for Oxford University Press about Broadway and popular music.

Photo Credit: Julieta Cervantes