Friday, February 8, 2013
While 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 06:10AMMonday, February 4, 2013
It’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 11:49PMFriday, February 1, 2013
Live! 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 11:13AMMonday, January 28, 2013
It 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 11:31PMSunday, January 27, 2013
Musicals 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 06:10AMFriday, January 25, 2013
Atlanta 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 11:58AMMonday, January 21, 2013
Each of us has experienced it. Life is going along merrily, and then suddenly you gasp for breath.
That’s when you remember that you’d forgotten an important anniversary. You rush to a …
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:50PMFriday, January 18, 2013
"Odets is really great," Harold Rome had Marilyn Cooper sing in I Can Get It for You Wholesale 51 years ago. Thanks to Bartlett Sher's fine production Of Clifford Odets' Golden Boy, we see t…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 09:33AMWhat’s the best aspect of this new Encores! production of FIORELLO! that’s coming up at the end of the month? It will remind those who have forgotten what a fine show this Bock and Harni…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 01:40AMMonday, January 14, 2013
Have there been twelve musical versions of Twelfth Night? Perhaps not, but I count at least seven that have seen the light of New York stages: Love and Let Love (1967); Music Is (1976); Pla…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:46PMFriday, January 11, 2013
When you think of it, one aspect of ANNIE has never made any sense. At the end of the show, everyone is having a wonderful time, and not simply because it’s Christmas Day. Miss Hannigan, R…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 04:16PMBetween Christmas and New Year's Day, critics are seldom if ever invited to see shows. Managements don't want to give away tickets that would otherwise be sold. After all, Christmas Week has…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 08:39AMMonday, January 7, 2013
Celebrating a new release of the Bye Bye Birdie soundtrack is certainly delightful. Some, however, may moan when they realize the occasion is the fiftieth anniversary of the original release…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:44PMFriday, January 4, 2013
Forty-four years ago this week, The Fig Leaves Are Falling became the first new musical of 1969.
And forty-four years ago this week, The Fig Leaves Are Falling became the first new musica…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 05:41PMThe show that was about to be presented was THE BOY FRIEND, but what had happened 30 minutes before the performance turned the show into 42nd Street. Here at Centenary College in Hackettstow…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 01:51PMSaturday, December 29, 2012
It was the month that I saw a musical revue at the Mark Hellinger Theatre.
Well, in a manner of speaking. On Dec. 21 at 7 p.m., I attended a free concert called Come Home for Christmas at…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 01:40PMFriday, December 28, 2012
This weekend, THE WHO’S TOMMY is enjoying yet another permutation at the White Plains Performing Arts Center. Producing artistic director Jeremy Quinn is giving the 1993 musical hit on…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 10:39AMTuesday, December 25, 2012
Before the year comes to an official end, let’s remember some of the artists that we lost this year.
While they aren’t with us any longer, there is a consolation: we can still hear them…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 12:24AMFriday, December 21, 2012
So while I was stuck in Cincinnati during Hurricane Sandy, my buddy John Ellis took me to Half Price Books, where I happened to spot a book called 45 RPM: The History, Heroes & Villains of a…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 11:12AM“Exciting New Musical 1963.” So said the circular yellow sticker that London Records pasted on the cover of every original cast album of RIVERWIND. Actually, if we’re going to get tech…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 11:08AMTuesday, December 18, 2012
On December 21 -- which is the shortest day of the year in terms of daylight – why not play “The Shortest Day of the Year”?
It’s the song that can be found about halfway through The…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 12:12AMFriday, December 14, 2012
What a golden time it is for theater! The Golden Land, the excellent Zalmen Mlotek musical about immigrants finding their way in America, has met with such approval that it's now been extend…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 01:32PMNow that BRING IT ON is finishing its extended run on Broadway, the time will soon come when you’ll be able to present it, too. It’s Music Theatre International’s newest acquisition. B…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 11:56AMTuesday, December 11, 2012
By Peter Filichia --
It’s been more than ten years since I had a certain conversation with Michael Kunze, but I remember it as if it were yesterday.
Kunze was in New York because the mus…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 12:11AMFriday, December 7, 2012
Before the year comes to an end, let's take a look at the state of musical theater art in late 2012.
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 06:50PMLet’s face it: most directors of professional or community productions of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee cast too old. They seem to ignore the fact that this competition is sup…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 12:12PMTuesday, December 4, 2012
By Peter Filichia --
A few weeks ago, we talked about the 25-disc “Broadway in a Box” set as a holiday present for newcomers to musical theater. If that’s a little too rich for your b…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 12:55PMFriday, November 30, 2012
Thirty-one years ago this week, Broadway saw the last of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG. Granted, the then-new 1981 Stephen Sondheim musical had a hard act to follow: SWEENEY TODD, the 1979 musical (…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 10:07AMIt was the month that Jumbo opened at the Hippodrome (well, in 1935), that Don Juan in Hell debuted at the New Century (in 1951) and Anya opened at the Ziegfeld (in 1965).
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 08:53AMMonday, November 26, 2012
By Peter Filichia --
If you’re quite familiar with the 1966 original Broadway cast album of Cabaret, two lyrics are going to jump out at you when you listen to the 1968 original London c…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:13PM 
