One of the most important sources of the classic Songbook has always been, of course, Broadway. With Oregon Festival of American Music 1996 we begin what we plan to be an ongoing exploration and celebration of Broadway from its earliest years through the golden ages of Musical Comedy and Mustical Theatre. This year the Festival takes a break from concerts to offer 2 fully-staged musicals from the early years of the American Musical: Jerome Kern, Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse's legendary 1917 Princess Theatre masterpiece Oh Boy! and George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, George S. Kaufman and Morrie Riskind's 1931/33 musical comedy political satire Of Thee I Sing. Add to that our annual dinner-dance, this year styled This Side Of Paradise, an appearance by Alsop's String Fever, and our grand finale at Cuthbert Amphitheatre, this will be another year of fine tunes you will never forget!