Wednesday, 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 07:38AMTuesday, September 24, 2013
Bless John Simpkins for giving Sweet Smell of Success another chance.
The gifted director, who also teaches at NYU, staged a revival of the 2002 musical on campus two years ago. On Sept. 12…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 12:00AMFriday, September 20, 2013
In a way, it’s THE PRODUCERS and LES MISERABLES combined. At first glance, that may seem to be a strange way to describe CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, the 2011 musical with a book by RAGTIME’S Te…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 10:42AMThe moment I walked in, I found myself smiling broadly.
Yes, Trinity Repertory Company of Providence was beginning its 50th anniversary season in apt style. As usual, a production here wo…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:37AMTuesday, September 17, 2013
The original cast album of Cowardy Custard is a must for the very young and the very old.
The two-disc set of the 1972 London revue features selections and snippets from more than five doze…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 12:04AMFriday, September 13, 2013
Congratulations to Susan Berlin, Jack Lechner, Brigadude, Arthur Robinson, Stu Grossman, Donald Tesione, John Griffin, Ron Schroeder, Ingrid Gammerman, Fred Abramowitz, Cathy Jones, Rob Will…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:36AMSunday, September 8, 2013
F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said that “There are no second acts in American lives.” For many of us, there are no second acts when we listen to original cast albums.
We get up in the mo…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 12:03AM 
