Added 2.13.19. When the Nazis purged non-Aryans from the ranks of cabaret performers, there were almost none left. That’s because, remarkably, most of them in the Weimar Republic, were Jewish. How was is that they were compelled to be there then? Love of the art and its cultural resonance is something deeply felt to Rebecca Joy Fletcher. She is an actress, playwright, ordained cantor, scholar, researcher, and performer of international Jewish cabaret shows popular in 1920s and 1930s Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, and Tel Aviv. Here she joins Milt to discuss what she does, why, and what she’s learned along the way.

…..not with the Marx Brothers but, celebrating the 2008 opening of the Chicago Lyric Opera, we talked with Peter Sellars, then the director of the company and also with the conductor of the new opera “Dr. Atomic.” Among our guests by recording are: Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, Bryne Terfel. Renata Tibaldi and Maria Callas. A great and memorable time was had by all.

Sheldon Patinkin, a great figure in Chicago theater, knew everything worth knowing about the modern musicals. As he was putting together his great book on the subject, he joined us to talk about Gershwin, George M. Cohan. Rogers and Hammerstein, Sondheim, et al. And he bought along his records and tapes!! Here is our discussion with loads of great American music. The 2007 program is also offered as a commemoration of this great veteran of the Chicago stage – and chairman of the Theater program at Columbia College – who passed away earlier this year.

Way back in the late 70s as the program took shape we sometimes focused on modes of music that preoccupied the proprietor. On one particular night, caught here in a rather brief excerpt, two practitioners of bluegrass try to define the nature and production of its distinctive sound….and then we segue into a perfect  performance by the Stanley Brothers of “The Maple on the Hill.”

Milt talks with Michael McCall of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on the history of country music.