Best-bets for May 13: musicals, great and not

1) “Great Performances: Anything Goes,” 9 p.m., PBS. Last summer – before Broadway began its comeback – Sutton Foster (shown here) and director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall did this show in London. They had done it on Broadway a decade earlier, winning Tonys; now they triumphed again. The plot is way too silly, but the Cole Porter songs ripple with wit and zest. Foster is superb in Marshall’s epic song-and-dance numbers.
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1) “Great Performances: Anything Goes,” 9 p.m., PBS. Last summer – before Broadway began its comeback – Sutton Foster (shown here) and director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall did this show in London. They had done it on Broadway a decade earlier, winning Tonys; now they triumphed again. The plot is way too silly, but the Cole Porter songs ripple with wit and zest. Foster is superb in Marshall’s epic song-and-dance numbers.

2) “Dear Evan Hansen” (2021), 7:35 p.m., HBO. Here’s another musical, but one that didn’t translate as well to film. On Broadway five years ago, it won six Tonys, including best musical and actor (Ben Platt). The movie cast Platt, now 28, in that same role, as a high school kid; a good actor faced a tough task. The music soars, but the story – a guy trapped in a lie he didn’t create – is sometimes painful.

3) “Magnum P.I., 9 p.m., CBS. Now that its season has ended, the show goes all the way back to its season-opener. Higgins is overseas with Ethan, when she must help an old employer. Magnum, suddenly working solo, must find a single mom who’a being hunted by two dangerous gangs.

4) New to streaming: Two novels have been turned into series that arrive today. Apple TV+ has “The Essex Serpent,” with Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston searching for a mysterious creature. Netflix has a new version of “The Lincoln Lawyer.” The 2011 movie had him using his car as his law office. He’s still doing that now, but he has also inherited the practice of a slain friend.

5) Already here. A busy streaming week started Monday, with the second excellent “Signora Volpe” movie on Acorn and the start of the “Candy” true-crime tale on Hulu. On Tuesday, “The Lost City” – a fun, if lightweight, film hurling novices (Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum ) into a tropical adventure – reached Paramount+. And on Thursday, “Hacks” started its second HBO Max season. The first won three Emmys (including star Jean Smart) and was nominated for best comedy.

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