Friday, December 13, 2013
As I write this, there are 12 days to Christmas. And if you’re one of those Christmas shoppers who is still wondering what to get your friends, relatives and colleagues, I have a few sugge…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:34AMTuesday, December 10, 2013
When was the last time that you really listened to The Sound of Music?
Musical theater enthusiasts tend to avoid mega-hits. We played them so much when we first came to know them, after we�…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 01:48AMFriday, December 6, 2013
Listening to the fetching LOST BROADWAY AND MORE: VOLUME 5, I was reminded of that famous expression that Jule Styne was fond of quoting: "Musicals aren't written; they’re rewritten."
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:03PMIt’s a long-held theory that people who are good at math are also good in music. So why not a musical about math? Many people are responsible for one aimed at the K-to-Grade Four set. It�…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 08:27AMTuesday, December 3, 2013
Did you miss A Bed and a Chair: A New York Love Affair? It was the Stephen Sondheim-Wynton Marsalis revue that played City Center a few weeks ago.
That’s all right. Not being able to make…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 12:09AMSunday, December 1, 2013
It was the month that SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK finally announced its long-anticipated closing. Considering that we don’t have access to the financial records, we'll take at face value…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 01:36PMWednesday, November 27, 2013
Even those super-intellectual students at Harvard University have been known to say on their rare off-hours “Hey, kids! Let’s put on a show!” And so, an intrepid band of undergrads got…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 09:24AMMonday, November 25, 2013
Don’t let December 1 go by without celebrating the 100th birthday of one of Broadway’s favorite stars.
“Mary Martin” sounds as if it’s a stage name, doesn’t it? In fact, it’s…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:32PMFriday, November 22, 2013
"Well, Spider-Man's initials are S & M ..." That's how I began my sit-down with Glen Berger at the Drama Book Shop last week. Berger co-authored SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK -- first with J…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 02:20PMThe Pennsylvania Players certainly got the timing right. Just before the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the troupe presented Stephen Sondheim and John Weidm…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 10:21AMTuesday, November 19, 2013
“Fifty years from now, they’ll still be arguing about the grassy knoll, the Mafia, some Cuban crouched behind a stockade fence.”
The lines come from a surreal scene in Assassins. Twen…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 01:21AMFriday, November 15, 2013
BIG FISH is struggling and closing. AFTER MIDNIGHT is running and thriving.
I saw both and preferred BIG FISH.
Not because BIG FISH was such a great musical. It doesn't sport Andrew Li…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:03AMMonday, November 11, 2013
I was a little shocked while watching Charlotte Moore’s splendid revival of Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock at the Irish Repertory Theatre.
I wasn’t surprised that J. Smith Came…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:09PMFriday, November 8, 2013
You want to do a musical that has solid name recognition — a great big Broadway show — but you want to challenge yourself and your staff, too. How ’bout SINGIN’ IN TH…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 10:46AMWhile I was reading an advance copy of Carolyn Quinn’s MAMA ROSE’S TURN – an extraordinary biography of you-know-who -- I was reminded of chess.
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 09:34AMMonday, November 4, 2013
At last! After years of waiting, one of the most endearing scores of recent vintage has finally been recorded and released.
It’s going to be in a number of stockings that are hung by the …
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:44PMFriday, November 1, 2013
What was the worst-received show of the month? No, not THE SNOW GEESE, but the interminable half-hour documentary that preceded the broadcast of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG. Worse, because it reve…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 10:13AMMonday, October 28, 2013
Having a Halloween party? Many of my friends do, although they do demand that their guests come in costumes that were seen in Broadway musicals.
My favorite memory: I was dressed in Hugh O�…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:44PMFriday, October 25, 2013
Directors of PARADE must cringe numerous times when they witness their production’s first preview. They often see that after many of Jason Robert Brown’s songs end, the audience doesn’…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 10:21AMYes, the third Sunday of every June has been reserved for Father's Day since 1910. But for me this year, the third Saturday in October was truly Father's Day.
For on Oct. 19, I saw not on…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:41AMMonday, October 21, 2013
Broadway already had Starbucks long before every street corner did. Starbuck Number One appeared as a pivotal character in N. Richard Nash’s play The Rainmaker fifty-nine years ago next we…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:45PMFriday, October 18, 2013
“That girl is brave,” a man said with great admiration permeating his voice. He was sitting behind me in the black-box Shaeberle Studio at Pace University in downtown New York. If a perf…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 10:40AMWhat I did the last couple of weeks can't compare to August Wilson's American Century Cycle - in which he wrote a play for each decade of the twentieth century. But I couldn't help noticing …
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:40AMTuesday, October 15, 2013
Forty-seven years ago this week, Cabaret opened in Boston, where the show would have its sole pre-Broadway tryout. Although Tony-winner Lotte Lenya and Tony-nominee Jack Gilford were “only…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 02:04AMFriday, October 11, 2013
Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler sang in BAKER STREET "What a Night This Is Going to Be." Well, starting last Friday, I thought, "What a week this is going to be," for I'd be seeing three mu�…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:39AMTuesday, October 8, 2013
We don’t usually get terribly sentimental about theaters, but in this case we must make an exception.
On September 29, the Shubert Theatre on West 44th Street celebrated its hundredth ann…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 12:09AMFriday, October 4, 2013
Here’s some advice to directors who’d like to do SHREK. Don’t dread the thought of that heavy latex headpiece that your Shrek would wear. Do as Stephen L. Fredericks did in his product…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 08:44AMConsidering that I attend the theater between 300-370 times a year, I'm often asked "So what are you looking forward to?"
My answer is always "Everything and nothing."
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:38AMTuesday, October 1, 2013
While any year would be a good one to give Ann-Margret a lifetime achievement award, 2013 is particularly apt.
It is, after all, the fiftieth anniversary of her breakthrough role as Kim McA…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 12:02AMFriday, September 27, 2013
One hundred and seventy years ago this month, Hans Christian Andersen wrote one of his most beloved stories. It was so beloved, in fact, that bookwriter-lyricist Anthony Drewe and composer G…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 10:02AMI love elevator critics. I don't mean people who criticize elevators. "That ride on that Otis wasn't nearly as good as the one I had on that Westinghouse last week." I mean people like the t…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:38AM 
