About Broadway to Main Street
BROADWAY TO MAIN STREET is a weekly radio program devoted to the greatest songs of the American Musical Theater. Each episode of “Broadway to Main Street” will celebrate an important show or legendary songwriter or examine a historical or cultural perspective. The songs will be drawn from classic original cast albums, rare recordings, and surprise interpretations, supplemented by host Laurence Maslon’s commentary, guest appearances, and news from Broadway.
“Every song we’ll play will have originated on Broadway, but in addition to the stars who made these songs famous, we’ll also hear from the great artists of film, popular recording, jazz, and the cabaret scene, and discover some of their majestic interpretations of this glorious music, in order to give our listeners a sense of how vast, how entertaining and how enlightening the American musical stage has been for over a century. Whether our listeners have tuned in from their living room or their car radio or one of those new fangled mobile devices, they’re going to have the best seat in the house.”
Laurence Maslon - Creator
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 is the author of the companion book to the recent PBS documentary series, Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle and cowrote the series with producer/director Michael Kantor. Also with Kantor, he cowrote 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 50thAnniversary Companion (HarperCollins) and The South Pacific Companion and The Sound of Music Companion (Simon and Schuster). 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 has been the host for Encores!-in-Seminar at City Center for thirteen 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 is currently editing the two-volume set American Musicals (1927-1969)containing sixteen classic Broadway librettos, to be published by the Library of America in June 2014.