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Submitted photo: Neil Berg will be joined by five Broadway performers to present his 100 Years of Hollywood.

Submitted image: Neil Berg’s 100 Years of Hollywood is the third and final show for the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts Presenter Series 2024-25 season.

VALDOSTA – Creating, producing and presenting shows celebrating genres of music is a fun challenge for Neil Berg.

The challenge: Select the best Broadway tunes or the top rock & roll hits or the most memorable movie songs; research, curate and present fascinating behind-the-scenes stories about these songs, shows, performers, movies; cast top Broadway performers to sing these songs.

The fun: Performing these shows for audiences across the United States.

Valdosta has become a regular stop for Berg and his shows. Past Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts Presenter Series shows have included Neil Berg’s 60 Years of Rock & Roll, and Neil Berg’s 100 Years of Broadway.

Berg and his troupe return Tuesday, March 18, to Valdosta with Neil Berg’s 100 Years of Hollywood.

“I love doing this show. It’s one of my favorites,” Berg said in a phone interview recently, where he was performing in West Palm Beach, Fla. “… We had the show and brought it back. We were doing a celebration for a hundred-year-old movie theatre in New York last year. There’s so much incredible material available.”

Berg described selecting songs from a century of movies as almost “impossible. You try spreading the love around. Try to choose seminal moments of Hollywood.”

He said in the old days, songs were written specifically for movies. He refers to the songs of movies starring Judy Garland: “The Trolley Song,” her songs from “A Star is Born” and what Berg calls “the most popular movie song of all time, ‘Over the Rainbow’” from “The Wizard of Oz.”

“Other movies catapulted songs back into the popular mind,” he said. “‘The Big Chill’ brought Motown and ’60s songs back from the ’60s into the ’80s.”

Often, great Broadway songs become great movie songs.

“‘My Fair Lady’ was a big popular Broadway hit but, within one day, 20 times more people saw it in movie theaters than during its entire Broadway run,” Berg said.

Berg said movie franchises have also launched numerous great songs. He cited the James Bond movies as a great example with song hits including “Goldfinger,” “Live and Let Die,” etc.

Berg said the show explores rock stars who become pop stars who become movie stars. Think Elvis Presley.

“We look at old movies, new movies and everything in between,” he said. “I always create these shows for my mother. I wrote this for the ordinary person who loves going to the movies but is not in the business. … The stories I share provide a peek behind the curtain, how things work.”

As Berg noted in a past interview, he approaches these shows as “an artist, a singer, an entertainer and a historian.”

Five professional Broadway stars join Berg on stage.

Rita Harvey is a soprano who performed in “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Fiddler on the Roof” on Broadway, he said.

Danny Zolli has performed in “Jesus Christ Superstar” more than any other performer, Berg said.

Rayshun LaMarr has performed in numerous Broadway productions but may be more familiar to audiences as a semi-finalist on a 2018 television season of “The Voice,” he said.

Miss YaYa received a Grammy nod for her work with “Dark Latin Groove,” Berg said.

Erick Buckley has starred as the lead in several Broadway shows, including playing Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables.”

“We’re literally bringing Broadway to your theatre,” Berg said. “You don’t have to get on a plane. You don’t have to spend an exorbitant amount of money on hotels. It’s right there in your backyard.”