Were you among the many who’d planned to go see Betty Buckley do Dear World in London – only to find the show had shuttered earlier than expected? “I’m not surprised,” says my bu…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:44PMIt was the month in which Breakfast at Tiffany's began performances on the 4th - which meant that by March 8th, after it had played five previews, it had already outrun the 1966 musical vers…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 11:56AMAudiences love when a character makes a fast costume change. If it happens with enough speed, they almost feel as if they’re getting two characters for the price of one. That opportunity a…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 11:15AMHave you been wondering why the National Collegiate Athletic Association nicknames its annual basketball tournament “March Madness” when the tournament heats up in April? Or why CBS call…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 12:03AMWish I could remember the precise story I was telling my buddy Bob Burger at the opening night party of the York's Starting Here, Starting Now. The point of it was that I was in a situation …
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 01:34PMWhen my New Jersey travels took me to Plays in the Park in Edison for Nunsense, I was overwhelmed by the power-packed performance of Susan Speidel – and told the director afterward. “Oh,…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 10:53AMWhile basketball fans of Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland are moaning and mourning that their team didn’t make the 68-team NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament – and adherents of the chosen…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 12:28AMHer name was Stella. She was a heavy-set girl who was a techie in the high school drama club for which I was an advisor. Between scenes of every show, you could see, if you looked carefully …
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 11:39AM"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, I'm Patti LuPone," says the lady to the packed house - with an as-if-you-didn't-know tone to her voice.
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 08:12AMNext Sunday, the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s “March Madness” will officially begin. We’ll know which sixty-eight teams will play for the 2013 NCAA’s men’s basketba…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 12:07AMIf you do PASSION correctly – meaning the way that Stephen Sondheim envisioned it – your audience will applaud only once the entire night. That will happen at the end of the show, after …
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 12:15PMMarch is coming in like a lion for Rodgers and Hammerstein. When most people think of Dick and Ockie, they recall their 11 musical properties (or at least five of them). Many may not know or…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:24AMAs I wrote last week, if college basketball can have “March Madness,” so can musical theater. My column of February 26 stated that aficionados should spend March going delightfully mad.…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:45PMIt’s never been produced on Broadway and its London production was short-lived. But these facts haven’t kept one theater after another from doing CHILDREN OF EDEN. Here in Watertown, Mas…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 12:10PMIt was the month that I attended The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee for the seventh time - and I've still yet to be in the right place to catch any one of the Fritos, M&M's, Oreos, b…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:34AMAnd here it comes: that annual sporting event that’s unashamedly come to be known as “March Madness.” Much of the country will be watching to see which college basketball teams will b…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:45PM“Every moment in life is an audition,” writes Tim Federle in Better Nate Than Ever. If that’s true, Federle’s audition as a writer gets him the part as The Country’s Most P…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 11:18AMA movie becomes a Broadway musical? While we think of this as a recent phenomenon, Donnybrook! proves it isn't. Its source, The Quiet Man, hit film screens on Sept. 14, 1952. Fewer than nine…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:34AMIt’s one of those Tony-winning musicals that doesn’t get done very often – and certainly not enough. But sharp director John Simpkins decided that his students at NYU Steinhardt could…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 08:36AMCongratulations to Fred Abramowitz, AnyaToes, Susan Berlin, Brigadude, Mark Canestraro, Laura Frankos, Ingrid Gammerman, John Griffin, Marc Grossberg, Jack Lechner, Paul Mendenhall, Brian Mu…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 08:25AMLearn how Broadway and TV actor Bryan Batt, a New Orleans native, was among those who helped turn around the fortunes of the New Orleans community theatre Le Petit Theatre due Vieux Carre.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThere’ll be a grand finale on the final day of the Junior Theater Festival ’13 in Atlanta. But before the big display of entertainment, the teachers repair to classrooms to learn a littl…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 10:26AMHere’s hoping that you can make it to New York this month and next to see the York Theatre Company’s four “Musicals in Mufti.” Starting this weekend, Mufti – which does readings o…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 01:31AMOn Feb. 17, 1983, I returned to New York from a two-week business trip and met my girlfriend at the O'Neill, where a friend had arranged comps for a preview of a new play. It started out ter…
SOURCE: kritzerland.com at 09:23AMWhile Alan Menken and I were having dinner the night before Junior Theater Festival ’13 was to begin, he said to me, “You know, when I was a kid, what I really wanted to be was a rock st…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 06:10AMIt’s only played a handful of previews thus far, but I’m hearing wonderful word-of-mouth about the new production of Cinderella at the Broadway Theatre. The score alone would suggest su…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:49PMLive! From Atlanta! It’s Saturday afternoon! At Junior Theater Festival ’13, Saturday morning saw 4,200 students head to 11 pods where they performed 15-minute excerpts from their musica…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 05:11PMIt was the month that I made Page Six in the New York Post for my altercation with a "Fanilow" at Manilow on Broadway.
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 11:13AMIt is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is one of the world’s greatest novels. Its reputation began two hundred years ago this week, when Austen’…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:31PMMusicals often want to show their audiences a good, escapist time - which may be one reason why so many refer to alcoholic drinks or matters involving spirits.
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 06:10AMAtlanta lost a big NFL football game this past weekend, but it certainly emerged victorious in musical theater. The eighth annual Junior Theater Festival once again took over the Renaissance…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 11:58AM