Michael Starobin

A Black family grapples with decades of inequality, violence, and suppression in the South. Benny, an orderly at a nursing home, delicately balances his role as a caregiver to an ornery white resident who shares a contentious past with his white boss while at the same time caring for his own family as the fight for equality grips the nation in the midst of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Thirty years later, his daughter, Ruby, struggles to understand an incident of police brutality against her 15-year-old son. This unique musical, spanning nearly half a century and three generations, asks us to contemplate the cycle of violence in this country and how we will find hope and create change against the backdrop of hate that plagues America.

Mary Poppins returns to the Banks family and helps them evade grave dangers by taking them on magical, musical adventures.

The 2016 Broadway Revival of William Finn's Tony-winning musical. It tells the story of Marvin, a Jewish family man who leaves his wife and son for a male lover during the height of the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York City.

Inspired by Georges Seurat's magnificent painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's soaring musical is itself an artistic masterpiece. The musical begins with the story of Georges and his model and lover Dot. As Georges struggles to find his artistic voice, he becomes more and more distant from the one woman who truly sees him for who he really is. A century later, Georges and Dot's descendants, themselves struggling artists, grapple with the same issues of artistic ingenuity, and a public that just doesn't understand. Through melodic and heartbreaking music, poetic lyrics, and quick, jaunty wit, Sunday In the Park With George reveals universal truths about the nature of art, love, and passion, with the breadth and depth of art's most enduring masterpieces. Filmed live at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 2013 and broadcast on Mezzo.

When the kingdom's most wanted-and most charming-bandit Flynn Rider hides out in a mysterious tower, he's taken hostage by Rapunzel, a beautiful and feisty tower-bound teen with 70 feet of magical, golden hair. Flynn's curious captor, who's looking for her ticket out of the tower where she's been locked away for years, strikes a deal with the handsome thief and the unlikely duo sets off on an action-packed escapade, complete with a super-cop horse, an over-protective chameleon and a gruff gang of pub thugs.

When the kingdom's most wanted-and most charming-bandit Flynn Rider hides out in a mysterious tower, he's taken hostage by Rapunzel, a beautiful and feisty tower-bound teen with 70 feet of magical, golden hair. Flynn's curious captor, who's looking for her ticket out of the tower where she's been locked away for years, strikes a deal with the handsome thief and the unlikely duo sets off on an action-packed escapade, complete with a super-cop horse, an over-protective chameleon and a gruff gang of pub thugs.

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.

When a greedy outlaw schemes to take possession of the "Patch Of Heaven" dairy farm, three determined cows, a karate-kicking stallion and a colorful corral of critters join forces to save their home. The stakes are sky-high as this unlikely animal alliance risk their hides and match wits with a mysterious band of bad guys.

Short film to a song of love lost and rediscovered, a woman sees and undergoes surreal transformations. Her lover's face melts off, she dons a dress from the shadow of a bell and becomes a dandelion, ants crawl out of a hand and become Frenchmen riding bicycles. Not to mention the turtles with faces on their backs that collide to form a ballerina, or the bizarre baseball game.

A behind-the-scenes look at the cast-album recording session of the 1992 Tony-winning Broadway revival of the Frank Loesser musical. Originally broadcast as part of the PBS series "Great Performances" (season 21, episode 4).

Little Ira is invited to his best friend's sleep-over party, but struggles with leaving his beloved teddy bear behind.

The Primm family moves into an old brownstone house on East 88th Street, where they find a crocodile named Lyle in their bathtub.

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte by Georges Seurat is one of the great paintings of the world, and in "Sunday in the Park with George," book writer James Lapine and composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim bring a story based on the work brilliantly to life. While the painting depicts people gathered on an island in the Seine, the musical goes beyond simply describing their lives. It is an exploration of art, of love, of commitment. Seurat connected dots to create images; Lapine and Sondheim use connection as the heart of all our relationships. Winner of the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Originally broadcast as part of "American Playhouse" on PBS (season five, episode nineteen).

The story of Elian, a teenager who comes of age using her magical powers to defend her family when the opposing forces of light and darkness threaten to divide her kingdom.