Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade: The CBS Performances

Not everyone knows this, but in addition to the Broadway performances that are (traditionally) performed on Harold Square and broadcast on NBC, CBS also has Broadway performances in their telecast of the parade. They apparently don't have access to the Harold Square footage, but they set up somewhere else along the route to catch the parade going by and have Broadway companies film performances from their own theaters. This year, since the parade is basically just crossing Harold Square, they didn't have anything to show, but I had kind of hoped that they were still going to get some unique broadway performances. However, it would appear what they're doing instead is just playing highlights from past years parades and that includes the broadway performances. While I am a little bummed, they have definitely picked some good ones. They captured the Come From Away performance from 2017 and the Dear Evan Hansen performance from 2018. Even after we realized what was happening, we had to watch them both again, and they both gave me chills again. I won't write a bunch of new stuff about these performances (you can see the old posts here and here), but I do want to just say that they each hit a little different this year. The Come From Away cast sang about the joys of coming home after beeing away for a long time, and Dear Evan Hansen reminded us how we are united even when we feel like we're isolated. These are messages that have grown even more timely this year and I think musical theater is exactly the medium to share them with the world.