Best of Broadway, The Lyrics – All Songs from the Musical

"The Best of Broadway" – The Musical Guide & Song Meanings

Review

How do you write about “lyrics” when the “musical” is really an entire century? That’s the provocation of “The Best of Broadway: The American Musical” (2004), a single-disc sampler tied to the PBS documentary “Broadway: The American Musical.” The album is not a plot. It’s a thesis: Broadway’s language keeps changing, but it keeps chasing the same impossible job, to make private feeling legible in public. The curation is the writing here. The track order does the storytelling. The juxtapositions are the argument. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

The selection leans on songs that do not need their full book scenes to land. That’s a deliberate bias toward “headline” lyric craft: slogans, declarations, title songs, and refrains that hold a whole show inside a few words. “There’s No Business Like Show Business” is industry self-mythology. “Ol’ Man River” is a moral panorama. “Cabaret” is self-distraction turned into doctrine. And by the time “Defying Gravity” hits, the album has trained you to hear an older Broadway impulse inside a newer vocabulary: the lyric as a personal manifesto, thrown at an audience like a dare. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}

Musically, the album is a tour through Broadway’s shifting accents: Tin Pan Alley pop, mid-century showmanship, concept-musical bite, mega-musical seduction, then contemporary belting as character strategy. The “meaning” is less about any one character and more about how the Broadway lyric changes its relationship to the listener. Early tracks sell you a world. Later tracks confess into your ear. The compilation is honest about one thing: Broadway is not one sound. It’s an ecosystem that keeps rebranding itself to stay alive. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}

How it was made

The album exists because the documentary existed. “Broadway: The American Musical” aired in October 2004 as a six-part PBS series hosted by Julie Andrews, directed by Michael Kantor, built as a sweeping history of the form and its relationship to American life. The show’s ambition shaped the record strategy: a large box set for completists, and this one-disc “highlights” edition for casual listeners who want the hits without the homework. :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}

There’s an origin detail that matters for SEO and for understanding the album’s posture: a Washington Post preview reported the series took about 10 years to make. That kind of timeline changes how you hear the compilation. It’s not just “best of.” It’s “most defensible under time pressure.” You can feel the compromises: one song per show, one show per era, and a constant need to pick the lyric that stands upright without scenery. :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}

Even the “alternate choices” on the highlights disc are part of the behind-the-scenes story. The Barnes & Noble editorial overview notes this is not simply a shortened version of the bigger set. It swaps in different flagship songs for a few titles, which is a quiet admission that Broadway history is always being rewritten by whoever gets to pick the clip. :contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}

Key tracks & scenes

"There's No Business Like Show Business" (Annie Get Your Gun)

The Scene:

In the documentary’s logic, this plays like a marquee lighting up. A montage-friendly anthem, all brass and grins, the kind of number editors can cut against footage of backstage corridors, footlights, and a city that never stops selling tickets. :contentReference[oaicite:6]{index=6}

Lyrical Meaning:

The lyric is Broadway talking to itself. It’s not subtle, and it doesn’t need to be. It’s the business explaining why it will keep existing even when it shouldn’t.

"Swanee" (Al Jolson)

The Scene:

Early-century Broadway as a pop song factory. The documentary’s first episode frames the period around personalities and the rise of new American song forms, which makes a hit like this function as a historical artifact more than a “number.” :contentReference[oaicite:7]{index=7}

Lyrical Meaning:

It’s nostalgia sold as speed. The lyric is simple, almost blunt, and that bluntness is the point: Broadway learning how to write hooks that travel outside the theatre.

"Ol' Man River" (Show Boat)

The Scene:

Episode 1 lands on “Show Boat” as a turning point toward story musical seriousness. The documentary’s framing tends to widen here: fewer jokes, more American contradictions, more shadow in the lighting and the editing. :contentReference[oaicite:8]{index=8}

Lyrical Meaning:

The lyric is endurance as accusation. It’s Broadway deciding it can carry social weight without dropping melody.

"You're the Top" (Cole Porter)

The Scene:

A smart-room song in a smart-room era. It plays like a champagne list of references, perfect for documentary rhythm: quick cuts, names on screen, a sense that the lyric itself is the choreography. :contentReference[oaicite:9]{index=9}

Lyrical Meaning:

Flattery as sport. The metaphors are the flirt. The meaning is less “romance” than “status,” Broadway teaching itself how to sound sophisticated.

"Oklahoma" (Oklahoma!)

The Scene:

A collective voice arriving at full power. In a history narrative, “Oklahoma!” becomes a pivot: the crowd singing is no longer just noise, it’s identity, and the lyric makes community feel inevitable. :contentReference[oaicite:10]{index=10}

Lyrical Meaning:

The word is the world. A place-name becomes a promise. That’s the Golden Age move: naming something until it becomes real.

"Cabaret" (Cabaret)

The Scene:

Lights tighten. The smile becomes a mask. The album’s jump into “Cabaret” reads like a hard edit from bright Americana into nightlife, a show asking the audience to notice what it is ignoring. :contentReference[oaicite:11]{index=11}

Lyrical Meaning:

The lyric is denial turned into entertainment. It’s a character making a philosophy out of looking away.

"Let the Sunshine In" (Hair)

The Scene:

Massed voices, almost ritual. The compilation uses this as a hinge into the era when Broadway starts sounding like the street, when the lyric stops being polite and starts being collective. :contentReference[oaicite:12]{index=12}

Lyrical Meaning:

It’s a prayer that wants to be a protest. Repetition becomes insistence. The “meaning” is the act of singing together.

"Defying Gravity" (Wicked)

The Scene:

Late in the album, the contemporary Broadway power song arrives as payoff. In the documentary’s endpoint logic, it represents 2000s spectacle and a new kind of star narrative, the personal choice staged as a physical event. :contentReference[oaicite:13]{index=13}

Lyrical Meaning:

The lyric is self-authorship. It’s Broadway returning to the old promise, “I will become someone else,” but now the someone else is chosen, not assigned.

Live updates

In 2025 and 2026, “The Best of Broadway” lives less as a collectible and more as a utility: a ready-made onramp for new listeners, and a one-disc “study playlist” for classrooms. The TV Guide listing still frames the documentary as a six-part PBS series with episode breakdowns and award history, which keeps it discoverable for viewers who search by streaming intent rather than theatre intent. :contentReference[oaicite:14]{index=14}

On the audio side, the bigger “Broadway: The American Musical” compilation remains widely available on major platforms, including Apple Music (a 106-song version) and Spotify (both a full compilation and a shorter highlights edition). That matters because it changes how people learn lyrics now: not through a cast album booklet, but through playlists that jump eras in a single tap. :contentReference[oaicite:15]{index=15}

Physical media is still in circulation. The documentary is commonly listed as a 3-disc DVD set (PBS Home Video, distributed by Paramount), and the highlights CD continues to be stocked by retailers and secondhand sellers, which keeps the title alive in searches long after the broadcast date. :contentReference[oaicite:16]{index=16}

Notes & trivia

• The disc is explicitly positioned as a companion to the six-part PBS documentary broadcast in October 2004. :contentReference[oaicite:17]{index=17}
• The highlights edition runs close to the CD time limit (Barnes & Noble pegs it at nearly 77 minutes) and is framed as the budget-friendly alternative to the 5-CD box set. :contentReference[oaicite:18]{index=18}
• It is not a straight abridgment of the larger set. The Barnes & Noble overview notes deliberate swaps, like choosing “Oklahoma” rather than “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” and “America” rather than “Tonight.” :contentReference[oaicite:19]{index=19}
• The Amazon track list for the single disc includes 21 songs, ending with “Defying Gravity.” :contentReference[oaicite:20]{index=20}
• Release-date listings for the CD commonly place it in early October 2004, aligning with the documentary’s original air window. :contentReference[oaicite:21]{index=21}
• A Washington Post preview reported the documentary took about 10 years to produce. :contentReference[oaicite:22]{index=22}
• TV Guide’s awards section lists the series as a 2005 Primetime Emmy winner for Outstanding Nonfiction Series. :contentReference[oaicite:23]{index=23}

Reception

The documentary got the classic “big swing” split: praised for reach and readability, criticized for what any compressed history must leave out. That tension also describes the album. As a compilation, it’s excellent at making Broadway feel continuous. It’s weaker as a guide to the messy arguments inside the form. Which is fine. This is a sampler that wants to turn strangers into fans. :contentReference[oaicite:24]{index=24}

“It took about 10 years to put together the series.”

Julie Andrews “escorts us through six hours” of Michael Kantor’s documentary, from early revues to modern megahits.

The series is “good for the novice” but “frustrating for the purist.”

Technical info

• Title: The Best of Broadway: The American Musical (Highlights)
• Year: 2004 :contentReference[oaicite:25]{index=25}
• Type: Compilation / highlights companion to a documentary miniseries
• Associated series: Broadway: The American Musical (PBS, hosted by Julie Andrews; directed by Michael Kantor) :contentReference[oaicite:26]{index=26}
• Label and distribution listings: commonly listed under Decca Broadway (and also cross-listed by retailers alongside Columbia Broadway Masterworks cataloging) :contentReference[oaicite:27]{index=27}
• Release window: early October 2004 :contentReference[oaicite:28]{index=28}
• Album concept: one-disc sampler with alternate material choices versus the larger 5-disc set :contentReference[oaicite:29]{index=29}
• Selected notable “placements”: songs function as era markers for the documentary’s century-spanning arc (early Broadway and Tin Pan Alley through late-20th-century reinvention and 2000s blockbusters) :contentReference[oaicite:30]{index=30}
• Availability: widely present as streaming compilations (full and highlights editions) plus ongoing CD and DVD circulation :contentReference[oaicite:31]{index=31}

FAQ

Is “The Best of Broadway” a stage musical with a book and characters?

No. It’s a compilation highlights album built to accompany the PBS documentary “Broadway: The American Musical,” so the “story” is Broadway history, told through song choices. :contentReference[oaicite:32]{index=32}

How many tracks are on the 2004 highlights CD?

Amazon’s track list shows 21 tracks, ending with “Defying Gravity.” :contentReference[oaicite:33]{index=33}

Why do some shows get different song picks than other Broadway compilations?

The Barnes & Noble editorial overview notes this disc is not a simple reduction of the larger set and includes alternate “one song per show” choices in several cases. :contentReference[oaicite:34]{index=34}

Who hosts and directs the documentary connected to the album?

Julie Andrews is listed as host, and Michael Kantor is listed as director in PBS materials and TV listings. :contentReference[oaicite:35]{index=35}

Where can I watch “Broadway: The American Musical” now?

Availability shifts by region and platform, but it remains listed by TV Guide with “Streaming” and “Airings” sections, and it continues to circulate as a DVD set through major retailers and libraries. :contentReference[oaicite:36]{index=36}

Key contributors

Name	Role	Contribution
Michael Kantor	Director (documentary)	Directed “Broadway: The American Musical,” the six-part series that the highlights album was packaged to support. :contentReference[oaicite:37]{index=37}
Julie Andrews	Host (documentary)	Guides the documentary narrative, shaping the tone of the companion releases and their “history tour” voice. :contentReference[oaicite:38]{index=38}
Laurence Maslon	Historian / co-author (companion book)	Co-credited on the companion book, helping codify the series’ historical framework that the album compresses into song choices. :contentReference[oaicite:39]{index=39}
Irving Berlin	Composer / lyricist (represented)	A foundational Broadway songwriter whose work anchors early-to-mid century sections of the series’ timeline and the compilation’s “canon” posture. :contentReference[oaicite:40]{index=40}
Jerome Kern	Composer (represented)	Associated with the documentary’s early story-musical shift via “Show Boat,” echoed by the highlights disc’s inclusion of “Ol’ Man River.” :contentReference[oaicite:41]{index=41}
Stephen Sondheim	Composer / lyricist (featured voice)	Listed among on-camera participants in TV Guide credits, a key commentator presence in the documentary’s later eras. :contentReference[oaicite:42]{index=42}
Decca Broadway	Label	Commonly listed as the label imprint for the 2004 CD release in library and retailer records. :contentReference[oaicite:43]{index=43}

Sources: PBS American Masters Digital Archive, TV Guide, Barnes & Noble editorial overview, The Washington Post, New York Magazine (Vulture), TheaterMania, Amazon track listing, Apple Music, Spotify listings, library catalog records (Marmot/BiblioCommons), Discogs.