All stories by Ccaggiano on BroadwayStars

Monday, May 25, 2015

Commentary - The Broadway "Bloodbath" by Ccaggiano

On Twitter yesterday, you'd think someone had died. Or lots of people. Or perhaps there had been a bloody massacre of unprecedented proportions. But what really happened was that nine shows …

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 05:58PM

Review - Fela "Live" From the National Theater by Ccaggiano

Certain musicals just keep coming back into my field of vision, offering me opportunities to consider the shows afresh. Most of the time, I see new things to appreciate, if not always enjoy.…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 05:58PM

The Bestest Musical Ever - Spring 2011 by Ccaggiano

Snow day here at the BoCo. Gives me a chance to catch up on some blogging. Here goes... Each semester, I begin my musical-theater history course at the Boston Conservatory by asking students…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 05:58PM

Review - Lost in the Stars at Encores by Ccaggiano

Yeah, I know. I've been greatly remiss in my blogging duties. Mea culpa. I'm wearing a hair shirt even as I type. But the semester is in full swing here at The Boston Conservatory, and this …

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 05:58PM

The Most Overrated Musical - Spring 2011 by Ccaggiano

Papers, papers, papers. I recently sat down to calculate how many pages I would be reading and grading this semester. I have 79 students, who will engage in a total of 15 writing projects. T…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 05:58PM

The Most Underrated Musical - Spring 2011 by Ccaggiano

Ah, spring break. Time for me to catch up on some long-overdue blogging. Towards the start of each semester, the students in my musical-theater history course at the Boston Conservatory emba…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 05:58PM
Saturday, June 18, 2011

Review - Spider-Man 2.0 on Broadway by Ccaggiano

I don't know about you, but I'm definitely bored with the whole Spider-Man thing. Last week, the show finally opened after a record-breaking 183 previews, but I had long since given up payin…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 01:48PM
Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Preview - Now. Here. This. at the Vineyard Theater by Ccaggiano

This is not a review. I repeat: This is not a review. As you may know, the fine, talented, and delightful crew that gave us [title of show] are hard at work on a follow-up, previously titled…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 02:02PM
Monday, June 13, 2011

The 2011 Tony Award Winners - My Take by Ccaggiano

I haven't watched the Tony Awards yet. I know that sounds strange, but I had a concert to attend last night, and earlier this year I disconnected my TiVo and got rid of cable, and I haven't …

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 12:01PM
Monday, June 6, 2011

Review - Lysistrata Jones at The Transport Group by Ccaggiano

It's funny how reasonable critics, and audience members, can disagree about the merits of a particular piece. After I sat through Lysistrata Jones last Friday night - "endured" would be a mo…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 10:29PM
Sunday, June 5, 2011

Review - The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World at Playwrights Horizons by Ccaggiano

Thrilling musical theater can come from the most unlikely places. As I'm forever reminding my students, there's no such thing as a bad idea for a musical, only poor execution. If you amass t…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 09:16PM
Saturday, May 28, 2011

Revisit - A Minister's Wife at Lincoln Center Theater by Ccaggiano

Before posting my recent review of A Minister's Wife, I thought long and hard about my reaction to the show. I went in genuinely wanting to like the show, but somehow it left me rather cold.…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 09:58PM
Friday, May 27, 2011

Review - Lucky Guy the Musical Off-Broadway by Ccaggiano

On Wednesday, the producers of the new Off-Broadway musical Lucky Guy announced that the show would be closing this coming Sunday, May 29th, after only 14 regular performances and 23 preview…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 11:39AM
Sunday, May 22, 2011

Review - My One and Only at the Goodspeed Opera House by Ccaggiano

When My One and Only had its out-of-town tryout in Boston back in 1983, word got around town rather quickly that the show wasn't working. Avant-garde opera director Peter Sellars was origina…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 08:47AM
Friday, May 20, 2011

The 2010-2011 Patrick Lee Theater Blogger Award Winners by Ccaggiano

The Independent Theater Bloggers Association (ITBA) is proud to announce the 2011 recipients of the Third Annual Patrick Lee Theater Blogger Awards. Patrick Lee was one of the ITBA's foundin…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 09:29AM
Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Review - A Minister's Wife at Lincoln Center by Ccaggiano

In a theater season replete with commercial-minded, but artistically spare, musicalizations of Hollywood properties (Catch Me If You Can, Sister Act, Priscilla Queen of the Desert), it's rat…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 02:04PM
Tuesday, May 17, 2011

TV Show - The American Theater Wing - "Working in the Theatre" by Ccaggiano

You know what's really humbling? Being in a room with a bunch of people who know a lot more than you do, about a subject that you thought you knew a whole lot about. And you know what's even…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 03:07PM

Review - Born Yesterday on Broadway by Ccaggiano

The movie "Born Yesterday" is easily one of my all-time favorites. I love to pop in the DVD on a rainy afternoon and luxuriate in the warm glow of Judy Holliday's star-making performance as …

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 01:22PM
Monday, May 16, 2011

Review - The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures at the Public Theatre by Ccaggiano

Playwright Tony Kushner has been much in the news lately. A well-received revival of his award-winning Angels in America recently ended a much-extended run at the Signature Theatre Company i…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 12:14PM
Friday, May 13, 2011

The 2011 Tony Nominations - My Take by Ccaggiano

Hmm, maybe this year the Tony Awards won't be a complete and utter embarassment. It seems as though the Tony nominating committee really took to heart the rampant (and warranted) criticism t…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 04:14AM

Five Years of Theater Blogging by Ccaggiano

In all of the hubbub of the end of the Broadway season and the end of the Boston Conservatory semester, it totally slipped my mind that my blog turned five in April. Five years of blogging. …

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 02:38AM

Third Annual Independent Theater Blogger Awards - Nominations Announced by Ccaggiano

As a member of the Independent Theater Bloggers Association, I am pleased to announce the nominations for the Third Annual Patrick Lee Theater Blogger Awards. Patrick Lee was one of the ITBA…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 02:09AM
Monday, May 9, 2011

Review - Where's Charley? at Encores by Ccaggiano

Phew. I'm finally caught up with my blogging on this season's musicals. (And it wasn't always pretty, m'kay?) Also, I've submitted all of my grades at the Boston Conservatory, so I have a ch…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 02:07PM
Sunday, May 8, 2011

Review - Sister Act on Broadway by Ccaggiano

Readers who only recently entered the EIKILFM fold could be forgiven for thinking that I hate everything. True, many of my recent reviews have been negative, to say the least: The People in …

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 09:45AM
Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Review - The People in the Picture at the Roundabout by Ccaggiano

After the final curtain for The People in the Picture, the couple seated next to me saw that I had been taking notes and asked if I was a critic. I said yes, but that they might not like hea…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 03:06PM
Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Review - Baby It's You on Broadway by Ccaggiano

I can't be bothered to write a lead for this review. Perhaps if the authors had bothered to write a show, I might be so inclined. Instead, Baby It's You, currently defiling the venerable Bro…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 07:15PM
Sunday, April 24, 2011

Review - War Horse at Lincoln Center Theater by Ccaggiano

The essence of theater is artifice. As audience members, we know that we're being manipulated, and yet we're eager to submit, as long as the production in question exhibits craft and genuine…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 10:05PM
Saturday, April 23, 2011

Review - Wonderland on Broadway by Ccaggiano

We've come to expect the worst from Frank Wildhorn. The composer who gave us Jekyll & Hyde, The Civil War, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and Dracula, the Musical has certainly made a name for himse…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 09:40PM
Monday, April 18, 2011

Review - Catch Me If You Can on Broadway by Ccaggiano

At various points throughout the new musical Catch Me If You Can, leading man Aaron Tveit turns to the audience to flash a toothy grin amid the glow of a pin spot to indicate that his charac…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 08:07PM
Saturday, April 16, 2011

Review - Anything Goes at the Roundabout by Ccaggiano

Things haven't been going all that well for the Roundabout Theatre Company over the past few seasons, particularly when it comes to musical theater. Two seasons back, Pal Joey was a thorough…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 05:03PM
Friday, April 15, 2011

Review - Hair Tour in Boston (and Back on Broadway) by Ccaggiano

A few days ago, the good folks at the Public Theater announced that the national tour of Hair, currently wending its way across the country, would settle onto Broadway this summer for a ten-…

SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 02:08PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards