PBS heads back to Broadway

PBS will be back on Broadway next month.
It will stuff four Fridays in May with “Great Performances” shows. That includes two full musicals — “Suffs” (shown here) and “Top Hat” — plus a documentary and a Nicole Scherzinger concert.
This has become a tradition, for the month leading into the Tony awards. Each year, “Great Performances” puts new specials alongside ones from London. In this case, “Top Hat” and the Scherzinger concert were filmed in England, the others in the U.S. The line-up, all at 9 p.m., is: Read more…

Week’s top-10 for April 6: big-deal finales, openers

1) “Best Medicine” season-finale, 8 p.m. Tuesday, Fox. Last week’s hour set this up neatly: Visiting Norwegians tricked the town into a damaging deal … Greg and George (shown here, left) mentioned they’d secretly married … and Dr. Best pointed Louisa to his ex-girlfriend, a fertility expert. Now that blends beautifully, in an episode that mixes fun with strong emotion. Read more…

Best-bets for March 30: man of passion, songs of faith

1) “Henry David Thoreau,” 9-11 p.m., PBS, concluding 9 p.m. Tuesday. Yes, Thoreau spent two years in a cabin (re-created here), writing eloquently about man and nature, But Ken Burns’ splendid film finds he’s much more interesting than that: Thoreau was a social guy who loved to mingle. He was a teacher, philosopher and pencil-maker, an abolitionist and a strong believer in personal freedom.
Read more…

For TV, it’s Earth Month-plus

In the TV world, Earth Day has become Earth Month.
Or, actually, Earth Month-plus-a-day-or-two.
That will be clear when James Cameron’s “Secrets of” series (shown here in a previous year) — usually the centerpiece of Earth Day — debuts Tuesday (March 31) on National Geographic. This time, it’s a fascinating look at bees … and it coincides with the conclusion of Ken Burns’ compelling portrait of Henry David Thoreau.
The next day, “Earth Month” begins. Highlights from the month-plus are: Read more…