Broadway By The Year: The Broadway Musicals of 1933

The brainchild of its genial and informed host and popular critic/author Scott Siegel, Broadway by the Year moves into its second season with a modest but vastly entertaining show that commemorates many forgotten and now fabled songs: "The Broadway Shows of 1933." Without sets and costumes and offering little of what you would call choreography, five charming performers (Mary Testa, George Dvorsky, Mary Bond Davis, Anne Runolfsson and Mark Coffin) bring their winning talents to a melange of musical-theater melodies. Assisted on-stage by a quartet of fine musicians—Dan Falzone, bass; Aaron Heick, woodwinds; Eric Halvorson, drums—and by Siegel's witty narrative thread throughout, the show offers a delightful sampling of the songs that spirited Broadway audiences at the height of the Depression.

From The Blackbirds of 1934, contralto Davis offers robust resonance to "One Hundred Years From Today" and later brings renewed luster to "Suppertime," from Berlin's As Thousands Cheer and "My Cousin From Milwaukee," from the Gershwins' Pardon My English. Making like Jeanette and Nelson, Dvorsky and Runolfsson lift their voices in "Never Fear," from Champagne Sec, an adaptation of Strauss's Die Fledermaus, and "Where You Go I Go," also from Pardon My English.

Always a musical-comedy force to reckon with, Testa lets us know "I'll Be Hard to Handle," from Roberta, and, with Davis, in the lovely duet "Harlem on My Mind," from As Thousands Cheer. She also adds her inimitable dynamics to the rousing ensemble effort from the same show, "Heat Wave." Testa, Davis and Runolfsson flirt shamelessly with Siegel in an audience favorite, "Ooh, I'm Thinking," from Strike Me Pink. Everyone got into the act with the "boom-ditty-boom" lyrics of "Savage Serenade," from Murder at the Vanities. While Runolfsson plays around with tempos and styles with "I'd Write a song," from Romberg's Melody, the company finds equally inventive ways to be playful with "Union Square," from the Gershwins' satiric Let 'em Eat Cake.

Perhaps my favorite moments arrives with the reserved but knowing interpretations of Coffin, who exquisitely sings "Call It A Day," from Strike Me Pink. But it's his chilling rendition of the original and stunning pre-Blitzstein lyrics to "The Legend of Mackie Messer," from The Threepenny Opera that knock our socks off. For those who love obscurities, Coffin and Testa combined for the delicious "Swapping Sweet Nothings with You," from Hold Your Horses (an 11-week flop).

There is no flop in sight for this series, as Siegel warms up his next show, "The Musicals of 1940," to be presented April 15, 2002. Not to be missed.