Tonight on Extension 720: Bette Davis once said that the “only reason anyone goes to Broadway is because they can’t get work in the movies.” But for decades, the Great White Way has been one of the most important centers of American culture. From Showboat and Oklahoma! to Wicked and Avenue Q, the American musical has slowly evolved into one of the most powerful and popular forms of entertainment. Tonight, we will explore the history of Broadway through song with SHELDON PATINKIN, chair of the theatre department at Columbia College and an expert in the history of musicals. This show will be guest hosted by Chicago Tribune columnist Rick Kogan.

Information on future programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

Due to Milt's laryngitis, the previously scheduled program with James B. Stewart has been canceled. In its stead, we offer these two very recently recorded tapes. During the first hour, TOM REISS, a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, talks about his book The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life, which details the remarkable story of Lev Nussimbaum, a Jew who transformed himself into a Muslim prince and became a best-selling author in Nazi Germany. After the 10:00 news, SARAH CHURCHWELL, a Winnetka native and now professor of English at the University of East Anglia in the U.K., discusses her fascinating new book The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, which attempts to sort through the myths and mysteries of the iconic American movie star.

Information on future programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

THE BUSH DOCTRINE AND THE IRAQI ACTION...are beginning to get some grudging approval from the left and the "realists." Krauthammer, in this from yesterday's Time magazine, explains what they should have understood all along.

WHERE DO THE "FOREIGN FIGHTERS IN IRAQ COME FROM? A trustworthy study of their national sources is now available...and, according to this report from Stephen Schwartz in the Weekly Standard, most of them are Wahhabist Saudis. Is anyone surprised?

THE ROAD TO MIDEAST DEMOCRACY...as seen and advocated by one of Lebanon's leading secular intellectuals. These important strictures have just been put forward by Chibli Mallat in the Lebanon Daily Star.

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT MALLAT? This down-to-reality interview with him appeared in Reason magazine last June.

THE OBSESSION OF DICK MORRIS...is the already-launched presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Now he sees her through his cynicism darkly...and he may well be right.

THE NATURE OF EMOTIONAL RECALL...is what these researchers from the Duke University Psychology Department are after. Brain imaging techniques make such exciting studies possible...and this one sounds promising to the proprietor of this space who has professed psychology for most of his adult years.

A NOBEL LAUREATE PHYSICIST LEAVES ROOM FOR GOD: This account of the life, times, thought and metascientific faith of the newest winner of the Templeton Prize appeared yesterday in the Christian Science Monitor.

THE TWO FREEDOMS: ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL...one of which is far more likely to generate the other than will the latter generate the former. Which is which? You don't need a Nobel Laureate to tell you but, in this case, one of them does.

THE BALTS REMEMBER THE NAZI AND SOVIET REGIMES...that supressed and humiliated them, even as Russia looks forward to the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII. What they seem to have forgotten is that many of their own citizens assisted the Nazis in killing their Jewish brethren.

WE ARE FILING THIS FOR OUR NEXT TRIP TO THE HOMETOWN: Since the proprietor left NYC--many, many years ago--most of his favorite restaurants have disappeared. This extensive guide to "the best," just published at New York Magazine will be consulted when we attend the week long conference of the SDFRP next June!!

AS A PUBLIC SERVICE FROM CHICAGO...we bring you a full account--from his own newspaper--of the Savior's Day address recently delivered by The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Just thought you should have the benefit of his wisdom...

SOME DEBUSSY FOR A SNOWY DAY. Snow fills the air this March afternoon in Chicago, and what better way to be transported out of a winter wonderland and into another world than with the music of Claude Debussy? Here are his lovely Estampes, a collection of three short works for piano inspired--respectively--by the music of Java and Cambodia, an evening in Granada, Spain and the gentle lyricism of French nursery songs. They are evocatively performed by Peter Donohoe.

Tonight on Extension 720: We take a trip down Lake Shore Drive to visit one of Chicago’s greatest cultural and architectural landmarks: the Museum of Science and Industry. Housed in one of the last remaining structures from the Columbian Exposition, the Museum is dedicated to inspiring scientific inquiry and creativity. On hand tonight to discuss the museum’s history and its current exhibits—including Body Worlds—are DAVID MOSENA, President and CEO, JEAN FRANCZYK, Vice President of Education and Guest Services, and DAVID WOODY, director of exhibit design and development.

Information on future programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

Tonight on Extension 720: Within the past few weeks, the health of Pope John Paul II has been in decline, and the looming papal replacement raises key questions of the future of the Catholic Church in the United States and the world. Recently, the sexual abuse scandals and declining attendance have forced closings of Catholic churches and schools here in the United States, while the Church throughout the world—particularly in Africa—flourishes. What challenges and promises are ahead for the Church? We will discuss all this and more tonight on the program with a panel of experts: PAUL GRIFFITHS, professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, FATHER JOSEPH M. JACKSON, pastor at St. Ignatius Church in Chicago, and DENNIS MARTIN, professor of theology at Loyola University Chicago.

Information on future programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

Tonight on Extension 720: What is the status of President Bush’s proposed plan to completely overhaul Social Security? How will the United States and its allies deal with the growing nuclear threat from Iran and North Korea? What is the next phase in the democratization of Iraq after the elections, and how successful will it be? Tonight, Extension 720 once again gathers a panel of experts in foreign affairs and domestic policy to discuss and dissect these questions and more. Our guests include CHARLES LIPSON, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, and KERRY LUFT, foreign editor at the Chicago Tribune, and DICK FRIEDMAN, president of the National Strategy Forum.

Information on future programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

BUSH GETS TWO (WELL DESERVED) CHEERS FROM FAREED ZAKARIA...and we take it to be a further sign that the responsible left is beginning to reconsider and reevaluate the action in Iraq.

ANOTHER ENCOMIUM FOR THE BUSH-IRAQ INTERVENTION. Though this one comes as less of a surprise (because published in the Weekly Standard) it coincides well with the Zakaria piece from Newsweek and adds further persuasive detail to the "Bush was right" argument.

MEANWHILE BACK IN BEIRUT...here's what's happening (and NOT happening though it should) according to the Daily Star published from that city.

THE HEZBOLLAH QUESTION...is as much at issue in Lebanon as the continued presence of Syrian troops. Revealed in this "sidebar" story from The Scotsman is that Jordan is after the same restructuring that Israel desires: i.e. the one that gets Hezbollah (who are Shiites sponsored by Iran) out of the game.

UNDERSDTANDING HEZBOLLAH...requires that one examines their relations with both Syria and Iran and the high mullahs of Shiite Islam. This report from three years ago is still the best available eluciadation of those connections.

FRANCIS CRICK AND OLIVER SACKS...or should it be the other way around? But, of course, memoirs of the recently departed are of greatest interest (and of value for ultimate biographers) when the writer has things to tell us about his own contacts with the great one now gone on ahead. This fine essay has just been published in the New York Review of Books.

THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD DOESN'T END: Judge Richard Posner's latest striking and startling contribution is his "doomsday book." We discussed his catastrophe scenarios with him on the program a few months ago--and, thus, found this counter-Posnerian analysis from Reason magazine of particular interest.

MEMORIES OF AN EARLIER AND BETTER TIME AT DARTMOUTH COLLEGE...are detailed here by a former student who attended before "student guides to the courses and their teachers" began to achieve their injurious influences. The proprietor was professing at Dartmouth in those days and testifies that published student evaluations have had untoward and undesirable effects at every college at which he has taught.

THE OFFENSE OF HETERONORMATIVITY AT HAHHVAHD: As ever, the big brick schoolhouse on the Charles leads the way in establishing new educational "norms" for the time--in this case they make it clear to all that speaking well of conventional marriage is an insult to the student body. President Summers beware! This is the one they may yet hang you on.

IS WARD CHURCHILL A SYMPTOM...of the decline and derailing of American higher education? A striking panel discussion considers that hypothesis under the auspices of Front Page magazine.

MAHLER'S "LIFE HISTORY" IN THE FORM OF A SYMPHONY: That was the composer's own designation of his second, "Resurrection" symphony. Here it is, strongly performed with Gergiev conducting the Kirov Opera Orchestra. The accompanying Work Notes will be of serious interest to any listener.