Sunday, September 4, 2011
A confession: There are certain historic entries into the musical-theater canon that I've never really warmed up to, supposed masterpieces that I can appreciate for their innovations and cra…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 08:26PMWednesday, August 31, 2011
The songbook revue is both the easiest and the hardest type of theatrical show to pull off. "Easiest" because you seemingly just throw together a bunch of songs and let the audienc…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 09:20PMSunday, August 28, 2011
Well, Hurricane Irene seems to have officially landed ashore in the Boston area, so much of the city has rightly shut down to keep the populace safe. In particular, all events have been canc…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 02:00PMSaturday, August 20, 2011
I was a bit delayed in seeing Death Takes a Holiday, the new musical with a score by Maury Yeston and book by the late Peter Stone and the not-late Thomas Meehan. The show is currently runni…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 09:56PMWednesday, August 17, 2011
As I was in the process of writing this review, the producers of the new Off-Broadway production Traces announced that the show would be extending its run until January 2012. The show opened…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 07:34PMThursday, August 11, 2011
Lots of people seem to have their nose out of joint over the new Off-Broadway production of Rent, which opened last night at the New World Stages. (Well, those who aren't complaining about P…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 10:53PMTuesday, August 9, 2011
Recently on Twitter, my friend Howard Sherman (@HESherman) started a hashtag topic on the best closing lines from the stage (#beststageclosinglines). Needless to say, I contributed a few of …
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 11:01AMWednesday, August 3, 2011
I'm not really a summer person. I never really have been. I've always looked forward to the fall, partly because my birthday is in September, but also because, when I was in school, I always…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 12:24PMSaturday, July 30, 2011
How can a show be a masterpiece if it has no official version? That's the question I always pose to my students when we cover Show Boat. There's no question that the show is historically sig…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 11:58AMWednesday, July 27, 2011
Yesterday on Twitter, there was a lot of talk about a recent list that EW.com posted of the 13 Funniest Broadway Musicals Ever. (Although upon closer inspection the list was actually publish…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 08:00AMTuesday, July 26, 2011
Dear Reader: Here is the first in what I hope will be a series of Second Opinion reviews here on EIKILFM. The authors will be coming from my growing population of theater and criticism stude…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 03:43PMThursday, July 21, 2011
One of the most overused punchlines of recent times has been "[Fill in the Blank] -- The Musical." You take the most unlikely property and speculate about making it into a Broadway tuner, an…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 09:42PMFriday, July 15, 2011
One recent trend on Broadway has been a series of revivals of well-regarded plays that, in the harsh light of retrospect, have revealed themselves to be somewhat less than we once thought. T…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 03:42PMThursday, July 14, 2011
Dear Reader: For some reason, I didn't receive a press invite for the return engagement of Hair on Broadway. Harrumph. But I did get a chance to catch and review the touring production when …
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 11:33AMFriday, July 8, 2011
I missed Sleep No More when it played in Boston in 2009, under the auspices of the American Repertory Theater. There was a mix-up with my press tickets, and by the time I realized something …
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 10:00AMThursday, July 7, 2011
We don't see a lot of revues any more. There was a time, some 80 to 90 years ago, when musical revues were a staple of the Broadway theater scene. Of course, this was when "book musicals" we…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 03:53PMTuesday, July 5, 2011
Every once in a while, I see a production that reminds me of what theater can really be. I'm not talking about commercial theater. I'm talking about theater in its purest form, which, at lea…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 08:59PMFriday, July 1, 2011
You may recall that the Tony Awards got booted out of the Radio City Music Hall this year and had to make do with the Beacon Theatre, which is about half the size. (Roughly 6,000 versus 3,00…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 03:14PMSaturday, June 25, 2011
We seem to be seeing quite a bit more of these "cinecasts," i.e. Broadway shows and the like taped and presented in local movie theaters. It started with Rent, of course, and lately we've se…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 10:17PMThursday, June 23, 2011
West Side Story may be the best musical that I've never actually seen work on stage. I mean no disrespect to the piece itself, which I consider to be almost a masterpiece. (Read my review of…
SOURCE: Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals at 12:12PM 
