177 stories by "Brad Hathaway"
Alfred Drake and John Raitt must have been the two most important Broadway leading men of the 1940s. There were others of note. There were the Ray Bolgers and the Danny Kayes and the Gene Ke…
From the Mid-Atlantic States to the Pacific Northwest, theatergoers can enter into a world of drama even before the play begins if they attend their theater in structures designed by Vancouv…
From movie to musical to movie – back and forth goes "Footloose." Right now, with the release of a new movie version showing on hundreds of screens across the country, attention is bei…
Recorded show music comes in many guises. One genre that can be thoroughly enjoyable when done right is the live recording of a club act of show songs. A fine new release that falls in the "…
How a disaster at sea changed the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes There are times when a theatre buff comes across something he (or she) wants to share with others of like mind which doesn…
It's about time! Finally, after the show has ended its Broadway run, we can buy the cast recording of  Million Dollar Quartet in a record store or online. Throughout the entire 489 per…
Marc Kudisch, Bobby Steggert and Kate Fry featured Confession time: I don’t love all scores at first listen. (In fact, there are some I never warm up to, but that’s a different c…
Will the well of wonders unearthed in Secaucus in 1986 ever run dry? Here, 25 years later, we have a brand new “World Premiere Recording” of the score of a 1946 musical! Who know…
Some musicals become identified with a single hit song from their scores. The downside of that is that such fame or notoriety can keep us from discovering the pleasures of the rest of the sc…
I’ve been to the Hill District in Pittsburgh many times … but I’ve never visited Pittsburgh. I’ve been to Aunt Ester’s House at 1839 Wylie Avenue and I’ve wit…
The new release on DVD of a 1955 telecast of Rodgers and Hart’s A Connecticut Yankee is more of a curiosity than a must-have addition to your theatre shelf. There are highlights, of…
 Ariel Benjamin and Jonathan Dillard get their start as  ”Assistants To Mr. MacDevitt” If you happen to be lucky enough to get a seat to Broadway’s hottest ticket of …
The stars seemed to be in magical alignment when the opening of this new musical on the West End, London’s equivalent of Broadway, was announced. A big, bold, colorful musical based on…
West Coast author Misha Berson got it right when she observed that West Side Story’s place in world-wide popular culture exceeds that of a mere musical. As she says: “In Japan…
Once again, PS Classics comes to the rescue of aficionados who have a few blank spaces in the Gershwin section of our theatre shelves. That’s “shelves” " the plural form of…
I'm not sure if the book has one long title and a longer subtitle, or if it is a short title with two subtitles, but the cover reads "Jerry Orbach –  Prince of the City R…
Of all the television versions of Broadway shows that seem to be appearing on DVD these days, the one that more accurately reflects the experience of seeing the show as it was on stage as an…
The original Broadway cast recording of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s sparkling score for Catch Me If You Can is a pip. The show, currently playing on Broadway at the Neil Simon The…
Musical theatre lovers now fall into two groups " those in Washington, Charlotte and Toronto, and all the rest. Those in the first group ought not listen to the original Broadway cast record…
One small side-section of a theatre shelf should have a couple of the all-too-few works for children’s ears that combine oral storytelling and orchestral music – Peter and the Wo…
To listen first and watch later – or to watch first and listen later – that is the question. At least that is the question if you are in New York or in a city where the National …
Devotees of Jack Sbarbori’s Quotidian Theatre won’t be the only ones fascinated by this new biography of the late Horton Foote, one of the two authors whose work inspired that co…
This year’s best score from a failed musical is now on disc and worth much more than a listen. David Yazbeck’s score is mercifully separated from the show that obscured most of i…
DC Theatre Scene readers who have enjoyed shows at Signature Theatre in Shirlington will wish this slender volume was thicker. At 123 pages of large type, it only skims the surface of the st…
So. You’ve just seen the revival of Follies at the Kennedy Center and you say “I must have this score on my theatre shelf.” Or you are planning to see it and you say “…
