Instructor: Paul Laird

No image available Biography:

Paul Laird is professor emeritus of musicology at the University of Kansas, where two of his teaching specialties were Baroque music and music of the United States. He has published widely on such topics as Leonard Bernstein and American musical theater and won the 2021 KU Chancellor's Club Career Teaching Award. Paul has taught many Osher classes since the program's inception at KU.

Classes by this instructor


Broadway Musicals of the 1950s

The 1950s were a very special decade in the history of the musical with such figures as Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, Frank Loesser, Leonard Bernstein, and Jule Styne writing such shows as "The King and I," "The Sound of Music," "My Fair Lady," "Guys and Dolls," "West Side Story" and "Gypsy" for the Broadway stage. This will be survey of the decade's most popular shows, the people who wrote them and the stars who played in them. Instructor bio: Paul Laird is a professor emeritus of musicology who taught at KU for 30 years. He has published widely on the American musical theater and taught dozens of Osher courses over the last three decades.
June 24, 2026 to July 8, 2026, Osher Institute, St. Andrews Office Facility In Person