This week, Playbill continues our must-know listening series as we travel through Broadway decade-by-decade. The 1970s marked an interesting time for musical theatre; the sound was clearly changing. Shows with rock scores like Jesus Christ Superstar and The Rocky Horror Show, Godspell and Evita, popped up alongside the funkier scores of The Wiz and Pippin. Still, Broadway proliferated gentler melodies with scores from Minnie’s Boys and Mack & Mabel and The Baker’s Wife. Of course, A Chorus Line broke ground with its spellbinding story and music. Grease and Annie spawned huge theatre fan bases amongst children and teens. For all its variation, Playbill assembled the soundtrack of 31 songs from ’70s productions every theatre fan needs to hear. (Note: Not all of the chosen tracks come from the original cast recordings due to availability.)

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An historical guide to accompany your listening:
“Magic to Do” — Pippin; Stephen Schwartz
“Company” — Company; Stephen Sondheim
“Invocation and Instructions to the Audience” — The Frogs; Stephen Sondheim
“Mama, a Rainbow” — Minnie’s Boys; Larry Grossman and Hal Hackady
“Honeysuckle Rose” — Ain’t Misbehavin’; Fats Waller
“Steal With Style” — The Robber Bridegroom; Robert Waldman and Alfred Uhry
“Fifty Percent” — Ballroom; Billy Goldenberg, Alan and Marilyn Bergman
“Twenty Four Hours of Lovin’” — Best Little Whorehouse in Texas; Carol Hall
“Easy Street” — Annie; Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin
“Ease on Down the Road” — The Wiz; Charlie Smalls
“Buenos Aires” — Evita; Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice
“Everything’s Alright” — Jesus Christ Superstar; Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice
“Waiting For The Girls Upstairs” — Follies; Stephen Sondheim
“Time Warp” — The Rocky Horror Show; Richard O’Brien
“The Only Home I Know” — Shenandoah; Gary Geld and Peter Udell
“Time Heals Everything” — Mack & Mabel; Jerry Herman
“A Weekend In The Country” — A Little Night Music; Stephen Sondheim
“Someone in a Tree” — Pacific Overtures; Stephen Sondheim
“Veronique” — On the Twentieth Century; Cy Coleman, Betty Comden and Adolph Green
“Coffee in a Cardboard Cup” — 70, Girls, 70; John Kander and Fred Ebb
“We Beseech Thee” — Godspell; Stephen Schwartz
“The Night They Invented Champagne” — Gigi; Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner
“Bubbling Brown Sugar” — Bubbling Brown Sugar; Danny Holgate and Lillian Lopez
“Strong Woman Number” — I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking it On The Road; Nancy Ford and Gretchen Cryer
“Where Do People Go" — Runaways; Elizabeth Swados
“I Still Believe In Love” — They’re Playing Our Song; Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager
“By The Sea” — Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; Stephen Sondheim
“The Music and the Mirror” — A Chorus Line; Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban
“But Alive” — Applause; Charles Strouse and Lee Adams
“Cheese Nips” — Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater; Alan Menken and Howard Ashman
“All That Jazz” — Chicago; John Kander and Fred Ebb

MUSICAL THEATRE 101: 1970s
Think the jazz “Easy Street” from Annie. Think groovy “Ease on Down the Road” from The Wiz.