Dramas on the Screen and Stage

Steve Graziano, Programmer

• Published on April 28, 2023 • Last modified on April 17, 2023 • Comments

Dramas on the Screen and Stage

A new MASTERPIECE drama is coming to PBS Western Reserve on Sunday. It’s a costume rom-com that I think you’re really going to like. Get ready for “Tom Jones,” based on the classic novel of the same name that tells of a young man smitten with a beautiful heiress. It’s fun, frothy and full of laughter and romance. Tom Jones begins this Sunday at 9 PM on PBS Western Reserve.

If your taste in drama is more true-to-life, we’re bringing back the first season of MASTERPIECE, “World on Fire.” This is a gripping story set in Britain, Poland, France and Germany at the start of WW2. It stars Helen Hunt and is one of the best dramas of that period that I’ve seen in a long time. The good news is that Season 2 is in production and should be coming out soon. In the meantime, catch the first season starting Sunday, May 7, at 3 PM on Fusion (WNEO 45.2 / WEAO 49.2).

Fusion is also the channel where you can find the best in performing arts. I can’t think of another place on TV that values the arts as much as PBS Western Reserve. That’s why we’ve featured the best in opera with GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET. This Sunday at 5 PM we have “Lucia di Lammermoor” featuring Nadine Sierra, Javier Camarena and Artur Ruciński. On May 7 it’s an encore of “Der Fliegende Holländer” (“The Flying Dutchman”) and on May 14 we have a brand-new production of “Fedora.” Umberto Giordano's drama stars soprano Sonya Yoncheva in the title role, featuring a 19th-century Russian princess who falls in love with her fiancée’s murderer. Now that’s an opera!

Drama, opera, jazz, folk and more—PBS Western Reserve is your home for the arts. It’s your membership that makes it all possible. If you haven’t joined yet, visit here to keep the arts alive.

Steve creates the PBS Western Reserve television schedules. Long before finding great programs for you to watch he was a radio DJ. He and his wife are avid travelers, preferring unusual vacation spots such as Cuba and Budapest and sailing across the Atlantic (on an ocean liner, not a sailboat). Tops on his list of famous people he’s met is Fred Rogers. A close second is Mick Jagger or maybe Elton John. His favorite PBS show is “Sherlock Holmes” with Jeremy Brett. Or with Benedict Cumberbatch. It’s a toss-up, he says. Either way, he loves looking for new and interesting programs to share with you.