Why isn't Harold Arlen as well-known as George Gershwin? It is a question that provokes debate among connoisseurs of what has become known as the Great American Songbook, or the Golden Age o…
Lincoln leads with 12 Oscar nominations, including best adapted screenplay by Tony Kushner (playwright of “Angels in America”). Les Miserables, the movie of the stage musical, sn…
Laura Osnes as Cinderella and Santino Fontana as the Prince in “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella” beginning previews January 25, and opening March 3, 2013
January is the month for theater festivals in New York, more than at any time other than the summer. Â The offerings tend toward the avant-garde and the international and indeed many of th…
When Quiara AlegrÃa Hudes’ “Water By The Spoonful” won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama last year, the standard response I heard was: What? Who? The play had never been prod…
A 22-song album of the music from "Bombshell" will be released on February 12, a week after the Tuesday, February 5th premiere of the second season of Smash. The first season of this Broadwa…
This week in theater includes news about “Wicked,” and about an older musical by the same composer; the longer life of “Peter and the Starcatcher,” a hoped-for life f…
“Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy”, 90-minute documentary by Michael Kantor (Broadway: The American Musical.) aired on PBS New Year’s Day Here’s the link Wat…
Vanessa Redgrave paired with Jesse Eisenberg ("The Social Network") in a play he's written? A new musical by David Byrne of Talking Heads fame about ex-dictator spouse Imelda Marcos, famous …
Theater, the original social media, meets its digital counterparts in form-breaking new live/virtual experiments: "As a theatre artist, I love space," Whit MacLaughlin is saying as we leave …
Tom Hanks, Shia LaBoeuf, and Cyndi Lauper are all making their Broadway debuts, and Scarlett Johansson returns, during Spring 2013, a season that promises at least two big hits, both of …
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 " exactly 150 years ago. There is no greater evil in U.S. history than slavery, with the possible exception …
Here are the ten most-read articles from this blog this year: Will Slings and Arrows Return To TV? I uncovered startling news for the many fans of "Slings and Arrows," the cult Canadian T…
It is hard not to be sentimental about the theater at the end even of a so-so year. There ARE Broadway shows with performances on New Years Eve: Mary Poppins, Newsies, Peter and the Starcatc…
“Bullying is an unfortunate part of our society,” writes Ahmed Shayef,  seventh-grader at M.S. 577 in Brooklyn, who won a walk-on role in A Christmas Story as a result o…
"What to do on New Year's Eve is always the puzzlement," Harvey Fierstein wrote this week. "But I think pot luck here at the barn with friends sound sanest. Music. Giggles." But what about N…
How much you were paying attention to New York theater this month… and this year? Answer these 10 questions and find out.
In 1885, at the age of 20, Wilson Alwyn Bentley hooked up a large camera with a microscope and photographed his first snowflake.
People the world over know tomorrow as Christmas. But Les Miz fans know it as the U.S. release of the movie Les Miserables. My review of the movie. It is never too late to give a gift for th…
Playwright Tony Kushner (“Angels in America”) wrote the screenplay of Lincoln, directed by Steven Spielberg. He talks about it with Bill Moyers, in-between clips from the movie.
This Oscar-winning 2002 documentary about America’s romance with gun violence is centered on the mass shooting at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. The film is funny, sad, insig…
The video was created by Raymond J. Lee. The song “Always” is by Scott Alan. The song is performed by Eden Espinosa, Jane Monheit, and Christiane Noll Participating in the vidoe:…
 After I compiled the top ten lists of top ten theater of 2012, a reader asked me to point out which of these shows you can still see. It occurred to me that the answer was — almost…
Near the end of "Les Miserables,"Â Eddie Redmayne, his face filling up the screen, sheds a tear as he sings: Oh my friends, my friends, don’t ask me What your sacrifice was for Empt…
One day remains to enter my contest for free tickets and merchandise to Les Miserables, the movie opening on December 25. A week left to shop for holiday gifts for theater lovers I've got tw…