What would American civilization be without the Broadway musical? In a refreshing sampler of Broadway hit tunes from the Depression to the 1990s, the National Symphony Orchestra under Radio City Music Hall conductor Donald Pippin showed a packed Wolf Trap audience how rich we are in such home-grown treasures as Irving Berlin's "Puttin' on the Ritz", George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" and Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine".

The NSO caught fire with Leonard Bernstein's Overture from "Candide" full of that fresh-air feeling of Copland's "The Tender Land". Along with the NSO's big-band sound, a threesome of Broadway vocalists demonstrated how far American musical theater has ventured from the days of burlesque and operetta.

Soprano Jan Horvath had the audience spellbound with her powerful vocal and dramatic performance of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Evita". Tenor Michael Maguire had the audience provide the refrain of "Puttin' on the Ritz" and did a convincing job with Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Boulevard". Equally forceful was baritone Douglas LaBrecque's version of Lloyd Webber's "Music of the Night" from "The Phantom of the Opera". As a trio, the singers were also in top form with glitzy tunes from "A Chorus Line" and "Cabaret".