Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Robert Preston as Professor Harold Hill informing the denizens of River City they’ve got “Trouble” (1957).December 20, 2022: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler
A day late, an…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 12:25PMTuesday, December 13, 2022
December 13, 2022: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler
The Canadian postage stamp created in his honor.Christopher Plummer was born on this date in 1929. He died in February of 202…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 07:24AMSaturday, December 10, 2022
As an inveterate theatergoer since the age of twelve, I’ve chronicled in these columns and elsewhere about the days when I saw shows on a weekly basis in the late 60s and early 70s. I’ve…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 01:06PMFriday, October 14, 2022
Angela Lansbury (1925–2022).In yesterday’s column, Angela Lansbury’s whirlwind of activity in the 1970s was explored. Not only did she perform on Broadway and the West End, as well as …
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 12:50PMThursday, October 13, 2022
By Ron Fassler
Angela Lansbury as Rose in “Gypsy” (1974).In yesterday’s column, I chronicled the late Angela Lansbury’s first twenty years as a film, television and stage actress (…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 02:56PMWednesday, October 12, 2022
By Ron Fassler
As I take to the keyboard to write a tribute to Angela Lansbury, who passed away yesterday five days shy of her 97th birthday, I’m surprised I had never gotten around to do…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 10:43PMTuesday, October 11, 2022
Robert Preston and Mary Martin as Michael and Agnes in “I Do! I Do!” (1966).It’s not hyperbole to say that when I saw Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s two-character musical I Do! I Do…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 05:12PMFriday, September 23, 2022
NY Times ad for the CBS televised opening night concert at Philharmonic Hall, the inauguration of Lincoln Center, 9.23.62.Is there anyone that doesn’t get a thrill from standing in front …
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 11:43AMTuesday, September 6, 2022
Throughout my life, I’ve always been intrigued by the notion of time travel. It could have something to do with growing up in the 1960s when all sorts of media were obsessed with the idea.…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 06:02PMFriday, July 8, 2022
Paul Scofield as Sir Thomas More in the film of “A Man for All Seasons” (1966).The title of Garry O’Connor’s 2002 biography Paul Scofield: An Actor for All Seasons seemed an appropr…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 09:23AMTuesday, July 5, 2022
Susan Johnson (drawn by Hirschfeld) with Eddie Foy Jr., James Gannon and Art Lund in “Donnybrook” (1961).She only appeared in five musicals that were recorded. Yet if you are someone lik…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 12:50PMMonday, July 4, 2022
Howard Da Silva (Ben Franklin) and William Daniels (John Adams) in “1776” (1969). Photo by Martha Swope.Can’t let July 4th go by without my annual tribute to the musical 1776, a brill…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 11:01AMTuesday, June 21, 2022
Self-portrait of Al Hirschfeld at his drafting table in his Koken barber chair.The artist Al Hirschfeld, a theatrical treasure of the highest order, was born 119 years ago today. Chroniclin…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 11:56AMWednesday, June 15, 2022
On this day twenty-two years ago, a new production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth opened at the Music Box Theatre. Directed by former director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Terry Hands, it w…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 03:27PMFriday, June 10, 2022
Jaquel Spivey, John-Michael Lyles and James Jackson, Jr. at the first Broadway preview curtain call for “A Strange Loop” (Photo: Jeenah Moon for The New York Times).I’ve been handicap…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 12:00PMTuesday, June 7, 2022
Charles Strouse and Lee Adams’ “The Telephone Hour” from “Bye, Bye Birdie” (1960).Composer Charles Strouse was born on this date ninety-four years ago. His more than thirty stage …
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 09:26AMThursday, June 2, 2022
During the height of my teenage theatergoing years, which occurred between 1969 and 1973, I was never happier than when I would pore over the New York Times’ ABC’s Directory in order to …
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 11:46AMFriday, May 20, 2022
Julie Andrews singing “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” at the recording session for “My Fair Lady” (1956).Having listened to a steady stream of Broadway original cast recordings over the…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 01:44PMMonday, May 16, 2022
Harold Prince, victorious with Tony #20 for “Showboat,” with Gregory Hines (1995).Now that the 2022 Tony Awards nominations have been announced and campaigning is in full swing, as usua…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 08:53AMThursday, April 21, 2022
Robert Morse as J. Pierrepont Finch in “How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” (1961).It’s with a heavy heart I attempt to put into words what Robert Morse meant to me as a…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 01:45PMTuesday, April 12, 2022
It’s a funny thing about an actor’s resume: they’re never complete and always a work in progress. In the constant act of selling themselves, an actor’s career needs continual updatin…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 11:59AMFriday, April 1, 2022
The Original Broadway Cast Recording of “I Do! I Do!” released in 1966.As young kids, I’m sure most Broadway loving-types have all had the same experience. Long before our vocabularie…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 09:11AMWednesday, March 16, 2022
That tiny slip of paper every theatregoer knows (btw, Christian Dante White was terrific).A common question I see posted from time to time on theatre blogs asks what the difference is betwee…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 08:35AMFriday, March 11, 2022
Vintage Tony Award, prior to its eventual pedestal.Okay, there was never any such thing as a 1944 Tonys. But the awards junkie in me had this thought and decided, for the fun of it, to attem…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 09:19AMMonday, March 7, 2022
Leigh Whipper, depicted in the painting “Dans un Café a Paris” by Lois Mailou Jones (1939).Not many actors have their portraits on the walls of a museum, so imagine my surprise when I …
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 09:37AMThursday, March 3, 2022
Tony Walton (1934–2022).Anthony John Walton has passed away at the age of eighty-seven. This is a personal loss for me as from the first moment I met him, I melted. He was one of those rar…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 01:28PMMonday, February 28, 2022
Bob Gunton and Beth Fowler as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett in “Sweeney Todd” (1989).“You have to love a character to play him” — Bob Gunton.
And yes, that of course includes …
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 12:46PMFriday, February 25, 2022
Bob Gunton as Juan Peron and Patti LuPone as Evita in “Evita” (1979).When he was a young man, the actor Bob Gunton took joy in settling in front of the TV with his dad to watch reruns o…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 12:04PMSunday, February 6, 2022
“ON THE 20th CENTURY” — A LILY BLOOMS
Judy Kaye and Kevin Kline in “On the 20th Century” (1978).For part three of the saga of On the 20th Century, we begin with the Varietyre…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 10:56AMTuesday, September 24, 2019
Author Ron Fassler shares his fall Broadway & Off-Broadway picks
SOURCE: ShowTickets.com at 09:21AMThursday, August 29, 2019
‘Up In the Cheap Seats’ author Ron Fassler on the new documentary about the classic musical
SOURCE: ShowTickets.com at 11:55AM 
