EVERY DOG HAS HIS DAY (AND A DREAM) If you have time off this month and are feeling wanderlust for foreign travel"but your summer budget doesn't allow for an actual trip around the world"I w…
RADIO-ACTIVE SATIRE (WITH SONGS) And now for something completely different. Presented for your amusement is a skillful skewering of the approach to fundraising"or, to put it more plainly, b…
Once Upon a Mattress, Dot and the Kangaroo cast recordings reviewed.
FROM CASTLE HILL IN THE BRONX TO A DEBUT AT CARNEGIE HALL IN MANHATTAN, SAMARA JOY IN CONCERT AND IN THE GROOVE # # # Most jazz vocalists dream of rapid success: winning a major contest, daz…
A REVIEW OF A REVUE Whatever happened to the topical revue format? As differentiated from musical revues that recycle old, established songs by particular writers, the topical revue presente…
MUSICAL ABOUT FASHION ICON COCO CHANEL STILL IN FASHION The scores of older Broadway musicals that don't get revivals include those that many theatre fans never got to experience beyond list…
IT'S JAZZ. IT'S JOY. IT'S JUDY On the very rainy night May 14th, performing at that place called Pangea, the attractive venue on Second Avenue in Greenwich Village, vocalist Judy Wexler is t…
ANY TIME IS A GOOD TIME TO GIVE MY REGARDS TO [THE MAN WHO OWNED] BROADWAY The tribute show is called George & Me. The only singer on the bill is a man named Bill: That's Bill Bartus, bo…
HARNICK…HEARTFELT & HEARTWARMING Sheldon Harnick, who passed away in 2023 at age 99, is alphabetically in good company among the great Broadway writers. His name comes after E.Y. "Yip"…
The "J2" in the name J2 Spotlight Theater Company of Manhattan doesn't refer to descriptions that start with the letter "J," like "joyful" and "joke-filled," but it might as well, because th…
Don't look for anything very heartbreaking or groundbreaking in the familiar musical ground surveyed by the generally joyful Judy Whitmore. When she toasts love, it's with a glass she sees a…
THIS IS HOW GLORY FEELS Here's an especially poignant and powerful musical about a real episode from the past that finally gains the word "Broadway" to its history exactly 100 years after th…
A FUN, LIVELY KANDER & EBB MUSICAL AND THE TICKET PRICE ISN'T EX-ZORBA-TANT Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: If a character in musical theatre is going to make a declaration …
HOORAY FOR THIS BANQUET OF BLISS" ALL THOSE SENSATIONAL SONGS AND ENERGY" BEING ALIVE ON STAGE Words seem woefully inadequate to praise the wonderful, song-stuffed, dazzling and polished pro…
BRAVURA BELTING, BONDING, AND BONHOMIE A double dose of old-school star power, show biz history, and charisma radiated through the showroom at 54 Below, fondly received and encouraged by a c…
A BARE-BONES BOBBY IN BROOKLYN: A COMPANY THAT GHOSTS THE GOODS IS STILL ABOUT BEING ALIVE A revival of a show featuring the smart songs by the late Stephen Sondheim is sure to draw interest…
DONNA MCKECHNIE TAKES US INTO SONDHEIM'S WORLD It may be impossible NOT to be charmed by the mega-vivacious, sunny-spirited, endearing veteran Donna McKechnie. Her smile and talent light up …
TAKE ONE: J2 AND A TALE OF TWO SMILES: THE FINAL SCORE AND WHAT CAME BEFORE While some companies reviving musicals long after their time on the Great White White might restore one or more so…
IT WON'T LAST FIVE YEARS, BUT IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO (THE RELATIONSHIP AND THE BROADWAY MUSICAL) Although the traditional wedding vow includes the pledge to stay together "'til death do you p…
A REWARDING TIME SPENT SUSPENDED WITH THE ARTISTS OF SUSPENDED IN TIME Some musical performances"in concert or on recordings"while unquestionably or undemandingly enjoyable, may go in one ea…
MAKING THE IMPLAUSABLE APPLAUSEABLE, SMASH IS A WILD, WACKY, WONDERFUL WOW "S" is for "splashy"; "M" is for "Marilyn Monroe"; "A" is for "audience-pleasing"; "S" is for "snarky"; "H" is for …
GRINS, GOWNS, AND GRIT: A WINNING SMILE SASHAYS BACK ONSTAGE In the year 1919, the Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway featured an ode to female finery as a bevy of beauties graced the stage to the…
THE NONPAREIL NONAGENARIAN REMAINS A NON-STOP WHIRLWIND OF TALENT There's a problem with singer Marilyn Maye's appearances. And it's this: For reviewers, all the positive adjectives have bee…
MR. GREENSPAN, PARTY OF FOUR Here's a one-of-a-kind, one-person, one-act play in which one man plays four women"simultaneously"without ever leaving the stage. Three (sometimes all four) of t…
HERE'S THE SCOOP ON BOOP! ENDEARINGLY CUTE, ASTUTE AND A HOOT Some things are meant to last. Cartoon character Betty Boop has been around for 95 years and has been rejuvenated"as youthful, s…