Gypsy
NPR is one of the totally terrific things about the United States. It is National Public Radio, a coalition of local radio stations in towns and cities all over the country who, in addition to making their own local programming, are bound together by this central network.
NPR covers news – local and national and international with international news often coming from the BBC, the arts, society, comedy, and everything else a public station should. There are no commercials, just announcements indicating who is supporting the local station you’re listening to. It’s paid for with donations from private individuals, foundation grants, some corporations and, unfortunately, seed money from the Federal Government.
NPR is, in every sense, public service broadcasting. There’s nothing else like it in the US.. The Trump Administration has decided to withdraw all funding from NPR.
NPR does many good things in the arts. One is a series, on video, called Tiny Desk Concerts where they invite arts people and events into their studio to perform. On this occasion, the producer of Tiny Desk Concerts managed to stuff into the NPR office the stars of one of Broadways’s most popular current musicals, Gypsy.
Here are Audra Macdonald, Danny Burstein and the other stars of the show, accompanied by some of their orchestra led by their conductor, Andy Einhorn, singing a selection of songs from Gypsy’s brilliant score by Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim.
It is a measure of how much respect there is among show folks for NPR that these major artists came to their office to support them. The tickets for Gypsy on Broadway are very expensive so few theatrelovers are able to see this great show live but here, with no costumes or sets, are three of the best songs ever written for the theatre, courtesy of NPR.
If NPR loses its funding we shall all be poorer.
The post Ruth Leon recommends… Gypsy: Tiny Desk Concert – NPR appeared first on Slippedisc.
