484 stories from Masterworks Broadway
Masterworks Broadway has two ways to whet your appetite for the upcoming presentation of RAGTIME at Encores! The last great musical of the 20th century will play October 20 through November …
Maggie Smith's recent death inspired me to listen to NEW FACES OF '56. Are you asking, "What could she possibly have to do with that show?" In fact, Smith made her Broadway debut in this rev…
I was racking my brains in trying to find the perfect gift for Princeton and Kate Monster's 20th wedding anniversary. Princeton, you may recall, proposed to Kate Monster on June 6, 2004, the…
The 1964-65 season gave birth to a dozen new musicals, but only one has ever enjoyed a Broadway revival. FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, of course. Make that, revivals, plural. Wonder of wonders, mirac…
You're aware of one great book about a 1971 Broadway musical production, but do you know another? For years, we've all celebrated Ted Chapin's magnificent Everything Was Possible, about the …
By Peter Filichia A picture is not only worth a thousand words, but it can also be worth quite a few songs. That occurred to me as I was humming many a show tune while attending�…
The rumor going around Broadway said that it was really about Rumours. STEREOPHONIC, David Adjmi's comedy-drama, the most recent winner of a Best Play Tony, does bring to mind Fleetwood Mac'…
Many people remember the birthdays and anniversaries of friends and relatives. I do, too " but I also remember when people laugh at lyrics in musicals. Sounds crazy, no? But this occurred to…
Nice press conference at Sardi's for julian schlossberg. No, I did not make two typos when putting his name in lowercase letters. That's the way they're printed on the cover of his new memoi…
I don't wish anyone ill, but in a strange way, I was happy that someone was. In April, I was scheduled to review LEMPICKA at a Wednesday matinee. Hours before showtime, the press agent email…
Christopher S. Connelly knows how big a star Helen Morgan was during the Roaring '20s and beyond. But he's now made sure that you know it, too. Connelly's provided hundreds of eye-opening de…
Frankly, I don't think that I'd ever listened to it. But I did reach for that SOUTH PACIFIC recording as soon as I arrived home from the Goodspeed Opera House. (Not so incidentally, at the l…
"My first reaction was that all of the songs were losers." "A terrible idea." That first quotation, reported by Joshua Rosenblum in his excellent new book CLOSER THAN EVER, came from lyricis…
Although the title is printed in gold, on a black background, it also offers one tiny dollop of a different color. There's a shining burst of green situated atop the first "T" of THE GREAT G…
And then there was another loss that may have been the unkindest cut of all… As we discussed last week, although GUYS AND DOLLS was the biggest hit of the 1950-51 season, Frank Loesser's m…
Seeing the recent, brilliantly staged reading of HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING by The National Asian Artists Project started me thinking. Frank Loesser had twice provided …
And now that the books have been officially closed on the 2023-2024 season and the Tony Awards, I've been answering a great many questions from relatives, friends and (let's face it) frenemi…
Understand that in this tally, we're not counting curtain calls. But indeed, last month in London during a Saturday matinee of OPERATION MINCEMEAT, I saw not one, not two, but three standing…
Although it's a book that's sold 20 million copies in 30 languages in the last 57 years, Danya Taymor had never encountered it. "I read the musical before I read the book," said the director…
So, which type of cast album listener are you? Before you see a musical, do you play the show's recording and learn the score down to every hemidemisemiquaver? Or do you avoid the album beca…
Only ten days after it had opened, its original cast album was already in stores. Frankly, the first-ever pressing of CABARET would have arrived even earlier had the musical not opened on a …
Although the new musical trying out Goodspeed's Norma Terris Theatre is called A COMPLICATED WOMAN, it could just as easily be titled A COMPLICATED MAN. That sounds complicated, too, doesn't…
Does everybody get the joke in ON THE TOWN? That occurred to me last week at the uber-popular Ellen's Stardust Diner. How popular? Pass by, and you'll undoubtedly see a line longer than the …
In the last week, you've probably heard two words over and over. "Robbed" and "snubbed." Yes, it happens every spring once fans hear the nominations for New York theater awards. The Tonys, D…
Forty years ago this week, a revival of a smash-hit with a Tony-winning score opened. It boasted a Tony-winning actress and an Oscar-nominated star who was repeating his role on stage. And y…
