The two-hour concert, Sondheim! The Birthday Concert will air on PBS’s Great Performances Wednesday, November 24 at 9 p.m. (check local listings). Great Performances is a production of THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG, one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers.

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Hosted by David Hyde Pierce, who provides sardonic narration throughout the evening, the cast, a veritable Who’s Who of Broadway’s finest performers, includes (in alphabetical order): Laura Benanti, Matt Cavanaugh, Michael Cerveris, Victoria Clark, Jenn Colella, Jason Danieley, Joanna Gleason, Nathan Gunn, George Hearn, Blaine Hoven, Patti LuPone, Marin Mazzie, Audra McDonald, John McMartin, Donna Murphy, Laura Osnes, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Maria Riccetto, Bobby Steggert, Elaine Stritch, Jim Walton, Chip Zien, and from the current production of “West Side Story,” Karen Olivo, who gets the evening off to a spirited start leading the dancers in “America.”

Conducted by longtime Sondheim stalwart Paul Gemignani, the evening (as well as the broadcast) was directed and co-written (with Pierce) by actor-director Lonny Price, who appeared in the original cast of Sondheim’s ?Merrily We Roll Along. Price also directed the Great Performances presentations of Candide with the New York Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic’s concert versions of Sweeney Todd and Camelot.

Stephen Holden in The New York Times raved, “While such celebrations tend to be messy affairs, ‘Sondheim: The Birthday Concert’ … was a model of organization, with a suave host … and witty leitmotifs woven into its structure. Performances by an all-star guest list …proceeded at a brisk pace; there was no speechifying.”

The concert includes songs and orchestral pieces from Sondheim musical theater favorites such as Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Into the Woods, and Sunday in the Park with George.

Many of Sondheim’s most famous numbers are on display, of course, as well as such interesting items as “Don’t Laugh,” which he wrote for his friend Mary Rodgers’ Hot Spot, and “Growing Up,” written for a later production of Merrily We Roll Along but sung here by original cast member Walton.

In an especially memorable sequence, some notable creators of Sondheim roles reprise their greatest moments, including McMartin (Follies), Gleason and Zien (Into the Woods), Peters and Patinkin (Sunday in the Park with George), the segment concluding with a couple of rival Broadway Sweeney Todds, Hearn and Cerveris, amusingly flanking LuPone, who played Mrs. Lovett opposite both of them.
Sondheim’s lesser known career as an occasional film score composer is acknowledged by a pas de deux danced to the theme written for Warren Beatty’s Reds by Riccetto and Hoven, and choreographed by Josh Rhodes.

Other highlights in an evening filled with them include “We’re Gonna Be Alright” (Mazzie and Danieley); “Johanna” (Gunn); and “Too Many Mornings” (Gunn and McDonald), and the parade of legendary leading ladies who cap the evening with a non-stop succession of showstoppers guaranteed to quicken the pulse of all bona fide show fans: “The Ladies Who Lunch” (LuPone); “Losing My Mind” (Mazzie); “The Glamorous Life” (McDonald); “Could I Leave You?” (Murphy); “Not a Day Goes By” (Peters); and “I’m Still Here” (Stritch).
In addition to the PBS telecast, the concert will be released on DVD in November by Image Entertainment.

A production of Ellen M. Krass Productions and THIRTEEN for WNET.ORG, the telecast was directed for television by Lonny Price and produced by Ellen M. Krass and Mort Swinsky, with Stewart F. Lane, Bonnie Comely and Cathy Fitzpatrick as executive producers. Bill O’Donnell is series producer; David Horn is executive producer.

Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, Vivian Milstein, LuEsther T. Mertz, the DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers and PBS.

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Passing Strange is the semi-autobiographical story of a young black man who leaves behind his middle-class, church-ruled upbringing in mid-1970s Los Angeles to travel to Europe in search of his artistic and personal identity, or what he calls “the real.” There he finds he can exploit a “South Central” persona, playing the cool, black expatriate-musician who speaks for his people. Picaresque misadventures with sex, drugs, politics and art find him in a far-out Amsterdam and a hyper-militant Berlin. But in the end, he discovers that cultural complexity—and hypocrisy—are not limited to middle-class African American life, and that while to him art may be more real than life, only love is truly more than real. Co-starring with Stew as ‘Narrator’ is an extraordinarily talented ensemble cast, featuring DeAdre Aziza, Eisa Davis, Colman Domingo, Chad Goodridge, Rebecca Naomi Jones, and Daniel Breaker as the story’s central character, ‘Youth.’

The Broadway show won a 2008 Tony Award for “Best Book of a Musical,” and in total, it received seven Tony nominations, including “Best Musical.” The show also won a Drama Desk Award, a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and two Obie Awards. The highly-acclaimed score does not stand apart from the action as in some rock musicals, but advances the narrative through a sophisticated libretto. Charles Isherwood of The New York Times raves: “Passing Strange is bursting at the seams with melodic songs, and it features a handful of theatrical performances to treasure. Call it a rock concert with a story to tell, trimmed with a lot of great jokes. Or call it a sprawling work of performance art, complete with angry rants and scary drag queens. Call it whatever you want, really. I’ll just call it wonderful.”

Passing Strange was originally created and workshopped at the Sundance Theatre Lab in Utah in 2004 by Stew, his long-time musical partner Heidi Rodewald, and Annie Dorsen, who collaborated on the creation of the show and directed it as well. It was performed at Berkeley Rep in California before coming to New York City’s Public Theater in 2007. The production then moved to Broadway and opened to critical acclaim in February 2008 at the Belasco Theatre. Spike Lee, who had seen the show, was contacted by producer Steve Klein, who was interested in making a film of the stage production. “When I saw the play I was knocked out,” says Lee. “The story, its musicianship and the acting was a revelation. Unlike recent translations of theater onto the big screen, the film doesn’t alter any of the cast, staging or production. This is a hybrid.”

Lee, working with cinematographer Matthew Libatique (“Miracle at St. Anna,” “Iron Man,” “Inside Man”) shot two performances of the Broadway show before its close, including the final performance. Lee then filmed the production without the audience, enabling dynamic close-ups, dolly shots, crane shots and other cinematic coverage. Lee’s long-time editor, Barry Brown, edited the final film.

A 40 Acres & a Mule Filmworks and Apple Core Holdings production in association with Thirteen for WNET.ORG, Passing Strange was produced by Steve Klein, with Klein, Kenneth Greif, Laurence Horn, and William Kohane serving as executive producers.

Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, Vivian Milstein, LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers and PBS. For Great Performances, Bill O’Donnell is series producer and David Horn is executive producer.

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The program premieres Wednesday, May 27 at 8 p.m. (ET) on THIRTEEN’s Great Performances on PBS HD (check local listings).

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Great Performances is a production of THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG – one of America’s most prolific and respected public media providers.

For Miranda, bringing In the Heights to life began when he was a sophomore at Wesleyan College. Having grown up as a first generation American in one of the toughest neighborhoods in New York City, Miranda always struggled to find his identity and place in life. Writing about the stories, sacrifices and sounds of the people from his neighborhood was a way to share his experience. “When I saw Rent, it was the first time I’d seen a musical that took place now,” recounted Miranda. “A light bulb went off and it was like ‘oh, you can write a musical that’s about you, about your life.’ If you had told me it’d take eight years to finish [In the Heights] I probably would have been too scared to continue.”

In addition to thrilling extended performance sequences of the original cast of In the Heights onstage at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway, this Great Performances program offers an intimate look at the production backstage and off-stage. Producers from @radical.media first identified the show’s potential at one of the early readings, and began filming the process shortly thereafter. This provides unprecedented access to the cast as they went through workshops, to off-Broadway, and finally to Broadway. Karen Olivo (Miranda’s on-stage love interest, who is now starring in a new version of West Side Story as “Anita”), describes her dedication to performing as more like an “addiction”; Mandy Gonzalez finds that her real life experience growing up with immigrant parents mirrors that of her character Nina; and Seth Stewart (Graffiti Pete), who has struggled to balance his love of dancing with his football career, is emotionally overwhelmed by seeing his image seven stories tall in Times Square. For Broadway veteran Priscilla Lopez (Camila), it is a journey back in time, as she recalls how her role in the original cast of A Chorus Line changed her life, while for Chris Jackson (Benny), the stakes are extremely high, as the success or failure of the show will directly impact how he can provide for his family, which includes an autistic child. These disparate stories all come together in the rehearsal hall and onstage, as the In the Heights company takes Broadway by storm with their high octane song and dance numbers.

In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams is a @radical.media production for THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG. For Great Performances, Bill O’Donnell is Series Producer, Michael Kantor (Broadway: The American Musical, Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America) is consulting producer; David Horn is Executive Producer.

Great Performances is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, Vivian Milstein, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers, and PBS. Major funding is also provided by the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust.