Ordway Center Entertains St. Cloud With Broadway Classics [AUDIO]

ST. CLOUD -- The Ordway Center's tour of the state stopped in St. Cloud today at the Paramount Theatre.

The St. Paul-based company's program, "Broadway Songbook", features performances and backgrounds of the greatest Broadway musical songs of all time.

James Rocco, the Vice President of Programming for the Ordway Center, says the

show entertains as well as informs the audience of the importance of the songs in American culture.

Rocco says that the show offers anecdotes and other information about their favorite Broadway hits (and music in general) and how it shaped America.

Rocco thinks people may be interested in the backstories of these songs, as the people who wrote them helped to change the world.

Rocco says that music - and the arts - transcends people's differences and helped to bring society together.

"It wasn't legislation, it was art that brought all blacks and whites together [in America]...it's actually the arts that started to break down the walls of segregation."

St. Cloud was the Ordway Center's final stop in their tour, but Rocco says they plan to be back in St. Cloud in the near future with a sequel to "Broadway Songbook" about rock and roll.