Sun 11/5 @ 3PM

The year 1964 was a time of major cultural transition. It was the year the Beatles broke and the Merseybeat sound overwhelmed popular music and the radio airwaves.

But among a slightly older crowd — the kind that paid attention to Broadway musicals, then still in their golden age — it was the year of Hello, Dolly! and Fiddler on the Roof, two blockbusters that still resonate today. Hello, Dolly!’s lead character, Dolly Gallagher Levi, is indelibly associated with Carol Channing, even though Mary Martin, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler and Pearl Bailey have also essayed the role of the larger-than-life matchmaker. Fiddler on the Roof tells the bittersweet story of a Jewish family driven out of their eastern Europe village by the Tsar’s army, the story of many people’s ancestors, including my great grandparents who emigrated from what’s now Belarus. Songs such as “If I were a Rich Man” and “Sunrise, Sunset” have become standards.

It was also the year of Stephen Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle, a flop that ran for 21 performances but introduced Angela Lansbury to the Broadway stage before she went on to star in the smash hit Mame two years later.

The Musical Theater Project’s show 1964 will focus on these musicals and their themes, hosted by TMTP’s artistic director Bill Rudman. They’re promising it will be an annual program looking at an important year in musical theater.

The one-evening-only performance takes place at Notre Dame College’s Regina Auditorium in South Euclid. Get tickets at MusicalTheaterProject or call 216-860-1518, ext. 701.