GREAT PERFORMANCES: “BROADWAY MUSICALS: A JEWISH LEGACY”
PBS, 9:30 p.m. ET
Michael Kantor, who looked lovingly and intelligently at New York stage history in Broadway: The American Musical, returns with another smart, talent-filled treatise, this time focusing on Jewish performers, composers, book writers and influences on the Broadway musical. Joel Grey hosts, and the vintage performance clips you’ll see include Zero Mostel in Fiddler on the Roof, Nathan Lane in The Producers, Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl, and, yes, David Hyde-Pierce in Spamalot, singing the pertinent lyrics, “To hit the top on Broadway and not lose… There simply must be, simply must be Jews.” Interview subjects include Stephen Sondheim, Mel Brooks, Stephen Schwartz, Arthur Laurents, Sheldon Harnick, John Kander and Harold Prince. Check local listings.