Monday, August 18, 2014
There was a time, children, not so very long ago, when hit plays ran much longer than than 131 performances. Why 131? Because in the last ten complete Broadway seasons, that's the average of…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 10:28AM[SHARE]Friday, August 15, 2014
While it seems that the English-speaking world is consumed with fringe festivals everywhere you look this month, Broadway is grabbing its share of attention with a rapid-fire series of annou…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:28AM[SHARE]Monday, August 11, 2014
10 days ago, I was completely unaware that an Icelandic musical had established a beachhead in one of Off-Broadway's larger theatres. To be honest, I'd never given much thought to Icelandic …
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 09:00AM[SHARE]Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Years from now, when the musical Wicked is eventually made available for school and amateur productions, will some high school administrator declare it inappropriate? After all, among its ma…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 04:13PM[SHARE]Sunday, August 3, 2014
The arrival of a new movie trailer online is received with a level of excitement and scrutiny that once waited for the film itself; even photos get analyzed in depth, as the recent hubbub ov…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 04:45PM[SHARE]Monday, July 28, 2014
One of the many achievements of Ira Glass's This American Life is that it is a longform approach to storytelling, whether personal or reportorial. By not dumbing down, by not sound-biting, i…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 11:05AM[SHARE]Thursday, July 17, 2014
Perhaps you knew it as a place to cool off, use the bathroom or grab some free wi-fi. You may have passed through it on your way to an office in the building known variously as 156…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 11:42AM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 15, 2014
On July 2, I wrote about a situation at South Williamsport, Pennsylvania's Jr/Sr High School, where a production of Monty Python's Spamalot, slated for 2015, was canceled, reportedly due to …
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 01:08PM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 2, 2014
"I chop down trees, I wear high heels, suspenders and a bra. I wish I'd been a girlie, just like my dear papa." My friends and I happily sang those Monty Python lyrics, at the drop of a h…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 04:01PM[SHARE]Sunday, June 29, 2014
When Randy Newman's Faust receives a one-night concert presentation this week as part of City Center's Encores! Off Center series, its NYC debut could be the end of the road or a new begi…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 07:03PM[SHARE]Thursday, June 26, 2014
"Off record tip: Wondering if you've noticed that there's someone missing from the Women's Project masthead on their website." That's the direct messaged tweet I received yesterday morning. …
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 10:18AM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 25, 2014
The announcement that ArtsGreensboro, the service organization serving that North Carolina community, will be funding arts coverage in the Greensboro News & Record, is being portrayed as…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 10:58AM[SHARE]Friday, June 20, 2014
"First, let's define what we mean by 'changes'." This statement came up not once but twice in my conversation with Bruce Lumpkin, artistic director of Houston's Theatre Under The Stars and d…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 10:12AM[SHARE]Thursday, June 19, 2014
Based on the commentary I was seeing in online articles and social media comments yesterday, someone had just painted a mustache on the Mona Lisa. No one seemed to care that Da Vinci had dec…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 10:59AM[SHARE]Monday, June 16, 2014
As the cab pulled into the driveway, I got a glimpse of a sign propped against a telephone pole, starkly gray, black and white. On it were the typical details of any theatre production: the …
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 11:37AM[SHARE]A marvel of gleefully saucy yet wholly innocent farce that leaves you spent from laughter and humming a catchy tuneNineteen sixty-two was too late for vaudeville, and surely the Roman comedi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 11, 2014
When I left Hartford Stage in 1993, one of our graphic designers presented me with a very funny framed piece of art called "The Ellipsis Award," for the most creative manipulation of critics…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 11:40AM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 10, 2014
I realize I'm writing this blog post for a very specific subset of readers, but after nine months of writing my "American Stages" column for London's The Stage newspaper, I have a request of…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 02:07PM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 3, 2014
"I got into a brawl one night in a saloon in Greenwich Village. Elia Kazan, a great director, saw me put out a couple of hecklers and figures there was some Big Daddy in me, just lyin' do…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 07:19AM[SHARE]Thursday, May 29, 2014
For some people, the words "interactive theatre" strike fear into their hearts, and they'll do anything to avoid it. The prospect of being accosted by an actor, of having the spotlight tu…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 09:27AM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 28, 2014
It's a funny thing about milestones, the way certain thresholds get set in our minds. If you follow reporting on the movie industry, breaking the $100 million gross barrier is a major achiev…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 09:21AM[SHARE]Thursday, May 22, 2014
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Broadway's 7 pm curtain on Tuesdays was introduced more than 11 years ago. I thought it a somewhat more recent innovation, especially since I still…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 11:53AM[SHARE]Monday, May 19, 2014
We all know that web traffic is the lifeblood of online media, giving rise to such essential reporting as "Which Game of Thrones Character Are You?," "Which Breakfast Club Character Are You?…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 06:36PM[SHARE]Monday, May 5, 2014
If you somehow managed to materialize in the auditorium of Jonathan Law High School in Milford CT this past weekend just as the band began the opening strains of Little Shop of Horrors, you …
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 11:53AM[SHARE]Monday, April 28, 2014
Of course, on the face of it, it's simply the dumbest thing you've ever heard. In a letter to the parents of kindergarten students at Harley Avenue Primary School in Elwood, N.Y., the princi…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 11:01AM[SHARE]Thursday, April 24, 2014
Rent is at the center of an academic controversy again, with a few twists. This time, it's not the whole show, it's just one song, "La Vie Boheme." It involves multiple high schools and a co…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 08:27AM[SHARE]Thursday, April 17, 2014
As I prepared to go to Trumbull CT last month to see the high school's production of Rent, many people asked, or wrote me to ask, if I would be writing about it. My consistent reply, which w…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 03:53PM[SHARE]Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Broadway dreams being immediately blown up into pending productions is something that really gets my goat. Why? Because it's a case of hyperbole becoming ostensible fact in the press, and th…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 03:53PM[SHARE]Thursday, April 3, 2014
I have just returned from a trip to Plaistow, New Hampshire, where I went to support students, parents, alumni and members of the community who wanted to speak out against the cancelation of…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 06:07PM[SHARE]Monday, March 31, 2014
Sweeney Todd at Timberland High in Plaistow NH seems to have a lot in common with the threatened but ultimately triumphant production of Rent this past weekend in Trumbull CT. A musical is a…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 06:19AM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 26, 2014
I am going to take it for granted that, since you've opted to read this article, you care about the arts. I'm also going to save time and typing by assuming that you appreciate media coverag…
SOURCE: Howard Sherman at 11:01AM[SHARE] 
