Wednesday, October 3, 2012
As you may have heard, Barbra Streisand will soon return to the borough of her birth, Brooklyn, to give two concerts in the brand new Barclays Center. If you're a big Barbra fan but you can'…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 07:25PMThursday, September 27, 2012
I'm one of those people who look askance at musicals built around pre-existing songs, but many of us who feel that way are happy to give a pass to Marry Me a Little. Originally staged Off-Br…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 12:22PMMonday, September 10, 2012
The late, great tenor Mario Lanza is most famous for almost single-handedly popularizing opera for a mass audience of Americans in the 1950s through his glorious singing in a series of big-b…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 09:29PMThe late, great tenor Mario Lanza is most famous for almost single-handedly popularizing opera for a mass audience of Americans in the 1950s through his glorious singing in a series of big-b…
SOURCE: stage.broadwaystars.com at 09:29PMWednesday, September 5, 2012
Debra Barsha composed the music for Radiant Baby, one of the best musicals you've probably never heard of. For whatever reasons, the show was not a critical success in its 2003 world premier…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 09:06PMSunday, September 2, 2012
One might say that Marilyn Maye is having a glorious renaissance, except that there really haven't been any dark ages in this lady's career. Famous as one of Johnny Carson's all-time favorit…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 11:29AMThursday, June 28, 2012
Max von Essen has been duly praised for his performance as Magaldi in the Broadway revival of Evita, but many theatergoers may be unaware that he is also the understudy for the marathon lead…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 02:24PMSunday, June 24, 2012
Everyone of a certain age has his/her own favorite mid-20th century pop singers, based on all sorts of qualities including voice, style, phrasing, and repertoire. But in terms of sheer vocal…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 10:46AMWednesday, June 13, 2012
Over the decades, Judy Garland has been channelled by any number of performers and impersonators, including some biological females. Several of these people have offered skillful and respect…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 12:23AMMonday, June 11, 2012
Frank Loesser's The Most Happy Fella is one of my all-time favorite musicals, but the show has never been tremendously popular with the general public, and I think that's mostly because of b…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 11:09PMWednesday, June 6, 2012
Located at the tip of Cape Cod, Provincetown is considered by many to be the birthplace of the modern American theater, having served as an artistic home for such playwrights as Eugene O'Nei…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 10:05PMMonday, May 28, 2012
As of this writing, cast albums of most of the recently ended season’s new musicals, revivals, and “revisals” have been or are very soon to be released. So, for the benefit…
SOURCE: artsamerica.org at 03:04PMSunday, May 27, 2012
The show in which Jessie Mueller made her Broadway debut -- the revisal of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever -- didn't run very long at all, but Jessie herself is here to stay. This spectac…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 09:54AMThursday, May 24, 2012
The cast of OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES (Photo: Joan Marcus)The great thing about a show like Old Jews Telling Jokes is that the title tells you pretty much exactly what you’re getting. No …
SOURCE: artsamerica.org at 12:08PMThursday, May 17, 2012
Kelli O'Hara and Matthew Broderick in NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT (Photo: Joan Marcus)
In my last ArtsAmerica blog entry, I wrote about what I consider to be an unfortunate omission from…
SOURCE: artsamerica.org at 11:50AMMonday, May 7, 2012
John Lithgow in THE COLUMNIST
One of the most inexplicable and unfortunate omissions from this year’s Tony Award nominations is David Auburn’s The Columnist, which definitely des…
SOURCE: artsamerica.org at 09:39PMThursday, May 3, 2012
The 1953 film version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes provides equal opportunity for oglers, whether they be male or female, straight or gay. In addition to starring two of the most voluptuous w…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 09:50AMMonday, April 30, 2012
Nicole Ari Parker and Blair Underwood
It’s nice to be pleasantly surprised, as I was by the very fine production of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire that recently ope…
SOURCE: artsamerica.org at 04:30PMWednesday, April 25, 2012
PETER AND THE STARCATCHER
When they are well done, so called “prequels” can serve as highly entertaining and intriguing adjuncts to beloved classics. Though prequels are far more…
SOURCE: artsamerica.org at 03:30PMThis year's Easter Bonnet show marked the culmination of six weeks of fundraising that raised $3,677,855 to support the good works of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Here are my pix of th…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 08:14AMFriday, April 20, 2012
Jennifer Cody plays a whore with a heart of gold and a lot of grit in Judith of Bethulia, an over-the-top campy spoof of Biblical films, written by and starring the one and only Charles Busc…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 07:01AMTuesday, April 17, 2012
Anita Gillette and Tom Bloom in THE BIG MEAL (Photo: Joan Marcus)
For reasons too obvious to list here and now, the most thoroughly satisfying new American plays — those that feature s…
SOURCE: artsamerica.org at 03:49PMWednesday, April 11, 2012
Tracie Bennett in END OF THE RAINBOW
With so many Broadway shows opening this spring (as happens every year), it can be very difficult to budget one’s money and time in deciding what t…
SOURCE: artsamerica.org at 10:46AMSaturday, April 7, 2012
Kurt Peterson and Victoria Mallory met in the mid 1960s when they were both fresh faced kids studying at AMDA, and even before they graduated, they were cast as the passionate lovers Maria a…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 10:12AMMonday, April 2, 2012
Jason Danieley and his equally spectacularly talented wife, Marin Mazzie, have made a lot of magic on Broadway -- together, as when they took over the leading roles of TKTKTKT in Next to Nor…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 10:50PMSunday, April 1, 2012
Paul Nolan in JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR
People have all sorts of opinions as to what defines an opera as compared to a musical. I think one important difference is that, in opera, the music mak…
SOURCE: artsamerica.org at 12:47PMMonday, March 26, 2012
For the coveted title "Miss Rodgers & Hammerstein of the New Millennium," I nominate Laura Osnes. Fresh from her delightful Broadway debut as Sandy Dumbrowski in the otherwise …
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 08:40PMSunday, March 25, 2012
Bill Coyne and Jody Cook in L'IL ABNER (Photo: Michael Portantiere)
Based on the Al Capp comic strip of the same title, and featuring a terrific score by Gene de Paul and Johnny Mercer, …
SOURCE: artsamerica.org at 10:01AMTuesday, March 20, 2012
For the next two weeks, the Lion Theatre at Theatre Row will be home to a staged concert revival of one of the most entertaining (if perhaps under-appreciated) musicals of the mid-20th centu…
SOURCE: BroadwayStars at 08:57AMTuesday, March 13, 2012
As if theater-loving residents of N.Y.C. don't have enough shows on and off Broadway to keep them entertained, there's a theater in nearby Millburn, New Jersey that has been a popular audien…
SOURCE: artsamerica.org at 03:40PMWednesday, February 29, 2012
Musical theater guys have sometimes been heard to complain that their female counterparts get the best parts and the best songs in shows such as Mame, Hello, Dolly!, Funny Girl, and Wicked. …
SOURCE: artsamerica.org at 01:18PM 
