A guest post by Ben West of UnsungMusicalsCo. When I was approached about recording Barefoot Boy With Cheek, I jumped at the opportunity. Based on the best-selling novel by Tony Award nomine…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 07:37AMA guest post by Ben West. Strange as it may seem given its frank narrative and its traditional sound, The Fig Leaves Are Falling is not a conventional musical. This colorful, vivacious and d…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 06:35AMI'll be posting a April's Musical of the Month later this week, but before I do, I wanted to share the results of a little experiment. I recently discovered a new music streaming subscriptio…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 07:18AMLast August, musical theater historian Laura Frankos detailed the history of the Princess Musicals in her introduction to Oh, Boy! This month's musical, Very Good Eddie, was the second of th…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 10:07AMA guest post by UnsungMusicalsCo director, Ben West Currently in its fifth year, UnsungMusicalsCo. (UMC) is a not-for-profit production company that I founded with the aim of researching, r…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 11:20AMA guest post by Levi Branson By 1920 Jerome Kern had achieved success as a noteworthy American composer with a uniquely American career. His melodies graced many entertainment platforms, b…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 10:24AMA guest post by Maya Cantu "America at the close of the Great War was a Cinderella magically clothed in the most stunning dress at the ball... immense gains with no visible price tag s…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 05:07AMI dreamed a dream in time gone by that someday I would be sitting in a cinema watching the film version of Les Misérables. In 1993 I had recently convinced my mother to take me to a …
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 04:55AMThe New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is pleased to announce the release of the Dorothy Loudon Digital Exhibition. Dorothy Loudon (1925-2003) was a Tony Award-winning Broad…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 06:56AMA guest post by Brian D. Valencia Evangeline, or The Bell of Acadia rounds out the Musical of the Month blog's consideration of the four most popular American-devised musicals of the l…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 08:57AMA guest post by Tracy C. Davis, Barber Professor of Performing Arts — Northwestern University. Extracted from the preface to Dorothy in Tracy C. Davis, ed., The Broadview Anthology of …
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 09:43AMA guest post by Professor William Everett Part of the innate appeal of the Princess Theatre musicals comes from the songs, which famously emerge out of the plots. Musical numbers in these…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 09:43AMA guest post and edition by Andrew Lamb. The works of Gilbert and Sullivan dominated nineteenth-century British comic opera from the start. Yet in neither London nor New York was a work of…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 08:28AMA guest post By Laura Frankos Oh, Boy!: Kern, Bolton, Wodehouse and the Princess Theatre Musicals The Genesis of the Series In 1913, the Shuberts added another theatre to their empire at 10…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 07:19AMA guest post by Professor William Everett. His statue stands in Times Square, the only one located at the "Crossroads of the World." This legendary showman did it all—actor,…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 09:24AMIf you've been using computers for a while, you've probably purchased quite a few devices for storing your work. My family's first computer (a Timex Sinclair 1000 purchased for about $40 …
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 09:22AMA guest post by Elizabeth Titrington Craft "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy / A Yankee Doodle do or die / A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam / Born on the Fourth of July." If these lines…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 07:35AMA quiz for musical theater fans: Name a musical, set at the close of the 19th century, in which two young men deceive a crotchety old man in order to escape his oversight and seek love and …
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 04:13AMA Guest Blog By Project Co-Director, Professor William Everett In 1910 impresario Oscar Hammerstein sold his interests in his Manhattan Opera Company to his chief rival, the Metropolitan Ope…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 12:41PMA guest blog by project co-director, Professor William Everett The Pink Lady (1911) is one of those delightful gems from a century ago with a title that suggests something eminently enjoyabl…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 07:02AMA Guest Post by Project Co-Director, Professor William Everett Noël Coward's Bitter Sweet is in many ways an ode to the world of romantic operetta. In 1929, when the show first appeared…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 01:19PMA guest post & edition by Brian D. Valencia When Shuffle Along opened at the 63rd Street Music Hall on May 23, 1921, it marked the return of all-black musical shows to Broadway after n…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 05:11AMA Guest Blog on Victor Herbert's Birthday by Professor William EverettVictor Herbert’s Babes in Toyland is typical of turn-of-the-century musical theater in that it encompasses various…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 05:50AMA Guest Blog by Larry Moore In the NYPL Rare Books Division, among the Townsend Walsh correspondence, there is an undated 1902 letter from director Julian Mitchell to his publicist/busine…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 09:26AMThe end of the year frequently inspires introspective comparison of one’s ambitions against one’s accomplishments and increased (if temporary) resolve to close the distance betwe…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 09:00AMLike many who spent their early childhood in those years before home video technology (VCRs, DVDs, Netflix, etc.) became ubquitous, I have fond memories of watching the annual television bro…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 04:53AMA Guest Blog by Project Co-Director, William Everett Orientalism and propaganda were common themes in American musical theater and popular song during the years surrounding World War I. Rev…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 05:36AMA Guest Blog by Project Co-Director, William Everett The German-born composer Gustav Luders (1865-1913) was firmly established in the U.S. when he teamed with librettist-lyricist Frank Pixle…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 12:02PMI needed a couple of extra archival boxes a few weeks ago, so I went over to a building where the Library keeps materials that do not fit in the main storage areas. While I was there…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 06:10AMThe text of the next Musical of the Month will be released around the middle of October. However, to tide you over until then, I have several exciting announcements. First, we can now offic…
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 12:28PMA second blog post from guest blogger Tracey Chessum: Here’s a question: If John Philip Sousa wrote at least 10 comic operas, most of which were well received not only on Broadway but …
SOURCE: The New York Public Library at 06:50AM
