Michael Feinstein for PBS' American Songbook

I haven't heard anything about this. Super excited!

Excerpt from BWW article:

"Show Tunes" - Friday, April 5, 2013 at 9 pm. Stars in the Broadway universe don't shine much brighter than Stephen Sondheim, Angela Lansbury and Christine Ebersole, all of whom appear in this episode about great American musicals. Sondheim reveals the composers he most admires and shows Feinstein some rare home movie footage of the original Broadway production of the classic Follies. Tony Award-winner Ebersole gives a tour de force performance of some of the greatest show tunes of all time, and Lansbury reflects on her Broadway career, from Mame to Sweeney Todd and Gypsy. (Feinstein has a surprise for Angela.) Feinstein discusses his personal relationship with Ira Gershwin (also the topic of his recent book) and performs the classic "Lullaby of Broadway," "Let Me Entertain You" and "No One Is Alone."

Read more about Stephen Sondheim, Liza Minnelli & More Set for FEINSTEIN'S AMERICAN SONGBOOK on PBS; Season Premiere 4/5 by broadwayworld.com"

First episode sounds incredible! Anyone think it is new Follies footage or the bootleg that everyone and their mom has seen on Youtube?

Updated On: 2/27/13 at 04:14 PM

I enjoyed the show but I would have loved if it had a lot less Michael Feinstein. It was practically a commercial for him and he's just not that talented to be worthy of the amount of time he got. The first segment could have had more archival footage of shows and less of his singing. And does anyone need to see him try to dance rather than have gotten a chance to watch the pros. It was far to self serving. Next time , Dear God Please , LESS Michael Feinstein!!!

I think Feinstein does wonderful work as an archivist, etc., but boy is he shameless mugging while he sings getting old.

The Sondheim segment was interesting, though, and it's always nice hearing from Angela Lansbury.

I missed the first ep. Didn't know it was happening, Do you know if it will be broadcasted again or something? Is there any way I could get it? Really upset I missed it.

Hulu perhaps?

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Ebersole really nailed her performance. She was wonderful.

The Dance episode doesn't air till next week here, but I look forward to seeing more of that PalJoey footage

There's only a small bit of PAL JOEY footage because there is no sound to go with it. (And sorry to be bitchy, but MF doesn't seem to know the show or its history very well; or perhaps he was being polite to Kelly's widow by not mentioning that the Harold Lang revival in the early 40s really made the show and its score famous.)

But Liza Minnelli is a revelation, if you ask me! She hasn't sounded so coherent in years and her observations of Astaire and Kelly are very insightful.

I agree with other posters that MF's mannered tendencies only get more cloying with time. But somebody should do an extended series of interviews with Minnelli!

On a personal note, my husband was glad to see a few clips of Lansbury in GYPSY. He's had to hear more than enough about that performance for all these years. I was really impressed at how much of "Rose's Turn" Lansbury was able to sing full out on each breath. Check out the sequence ending with "This time, boys, I'm taking the bows and...".

Updated On: 4/8/13 at 05:27 PM

Liza did a great job . But it was also edited very well. Michael bugs. His husband also bugs. There is something very la dee da about them both.

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Updated On: 4/8/13 at 06:27 PM