Last week, Freddie Gershon reminded me of two wonderful stories.

We were at The 2017 Business Leaders for the Arts Annual Dinner at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Gershon, the chairman and CEO of Musical Theatre, was the keynote speaker.

The subject? Broadway Junior, the series of one-hour musicals for middle-schoolers that Gershon conceived in 1994 and brought to realization in 1996.

Since then, 25 million have attended more than 200,000 Broadway Junior productions; five million kids have become involved thanks to 500,000 teachers.

"It is a ubiquitous reality in all 50 states, Australia, the United Kingdom, Africa and Asia," reported Gershon.

Gershon also lauded Tom Gabbard, the president of Blumenthal Performing Arts, who had the idea of gathering schools in the region that had done Broadway, Junior shows and had them perform at the 1,193-seat Knight Theater. This inspired Gershon to do the same with local New York schools; the Shuberts now help, too, and offered The Winter Garden this past spring.

The Baby Center, which lists the most popular names for newborns, reports that since 1977, a centuries-old tradition has been steadily decreasing. Fewer and fewer parents of male babies give their sons their fathers' names.

If this keeps up, there may come a time when the only time anyone hears the word "Junior" is in conjunction with Broadway Junior.

The important thing, as Gershon said, is that "Students are now having fun, making friends, and keeping friends. Values change."

That brought back the memory of a performance of Annie JR. in Connecticut 16 years ago. A friend's son was playing Rooster, so I attended.

As soon as the show ended, I jumped out of my seat and ran into the hallway so I could congratulate the boy.

Beating me there were two girls who sprinted out from backstage. One was the lass who'd played Miss Hannigan. The other portrayed Grace Farrell.

As soon as these kids reached the hall, they looked at each other, broke into broad smiles, gave a whoop of glee, hugged each other tight and jumped up and down a few times. So thrilled were they that the show had gone so well that they had to share the joy of achievement.

Working together and seeing each other master significant roles represented only part of their respect for each other. When they weren't needed on stage, they probably congratulated each other, which started them chatting. Perhaps they found they had more in common than they originally would have thought. Had it not been Annie JR. they might not have ever exchanged a word all year long.

When Gershon said that Broadway Junior participants "seem to be doing better on exams," I thought of Richard Ouzounian, for 15 years the theater critic of the Toronto Star.

When he was in college, three classmates approached him. One was a math and science whiz, another knew geography, the third history. They'd been chosen to represent their school in The General Electric College Bowl, a TV competition in which two teams of four, each representing a school, would answer questions to see which quartet was the smarter.

"We need someone who knows the arts," they told Richard, who certainly did. He agreed to participate.

Once on the broadcast, they heard the host ask "Who won the Nobel Prize for discovering heavy hydrogen?"

Richard buzzed and answered "Harold Urey!"

"Correct!" exclaimed the host - which got looks of mystification from Richard's teammates. How on earth did an arts maven know that arcane scientific fact?

From listening to a cast album of a Broadway musical, that's how.

In 1966, a show about Superman opened on Broadway. The plot involved a mad scientist who was furious that he'd never been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. As he sang in Lee Adams' lyric:

"Ah, but the thing that really drove me to a fury.
They gave the prize to Harold Urey.

The shocking thing about the matter is
My heavy hydrogen was heavier than his."

Musical theater may not teach us all we need to be aware of in life, but it sure lets us in on a lot we wouldn't otherwise know.

Read more Filichia Features. 

You may e-mail Peter at pfilichia@aol.com. Check out his weekly column each Monday at www.broadwayselect.comand Tuesday at www.masterworksbroadway.com. His book, The Great Parade: Broadway's Astonishing, Never-To-Be Forgotten 1963-1964 Season is now available at www.amazon.com.