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Where Can I Find More Musical Theater?

One of the great features of life in New York City is the American Songbook series.

These are wildly overpriced concerts that happen at Columbus Circle; you wander through the little mall, with the J. Crew (once upon a time!) and the Williams Sonoma, and you take a secret (not really) elevator, up, up, up to a grand hall (the Appel Room).

The concerts themselves are very short, so I think the crazy ticket prices are mainly related to the view you get from this one big room. An entire wall has been replaced by windows, so you gaze out at the southwestern corner of Central Park; you see cars trudging along Central Park South. And horses. At Christmas, lights are everywhere, and you feel you're looking down from a spaceship.

Several American Songbook concerts are being televised, in these Covid days, and I want to give my recommendation:

*Sutton Foster. Skip right to "Sunshine on My Shoulders," "Take Me to the World," and "It All Fades Away," which is a standard somewhat-generic Jason Robert Brown power ballad, well done.

*Megan Hilty. Go right to "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," obviously. Stay for "The Heart of the Matter," a perfect Don Henley song, disguised as a note to an ex-lover, and so potent that it became the climax of the first "Sex and the City" movie, which was of course an important moment in everyone's life.

*Annaleigh Ashford. Some people would hesitate to step into Bernadette Peters's shoes, but Ms. Ashford was happy to lead a production of "Sunday in the Park with George," and she didn't even have Mandy Patinkin to lean on. Look for "Move On," "One Hand in My Pocket," and "Another Hundred People."

I love these concerts, and I think they're time well-spent. You can sing along. I look forward to when the live series will--someday--return!

*P.S. We have just till May 26 to watch for free. After that, there will be a charge.
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