484 stories from Masterworks Broadway
If you see the Oscar-winning film TITANIC at your local multiplex on November 4 or 8, you may soon be asking yourself a question. Has there ever been a musical that offers more dramatic iron…
So where were all of you 42 years ago? MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG certainly could have used you then. All right, many of you who are reading this weren't yet born, or you hadn't yet reached theat…
Faithful readers will recall that last week I gave some selections from my new book BRAINTEASERS FOR BROADWAY GENIUSES " now available, as they say, "in fine bookstores everywhere." If you c…
For the last 14 years, I've spent most of my Sunday mornings on www.broadwayradio.com. It's James Marino's podcast that also features eminent critic Michael Portantiere. One of the segments …
I vehemently disagree with Little Red Riding Hood. In INTO THE WOODS, the sadder-but-wiser girl decides that "Nice is different than good." I not only take issue with her grammar " "differen…
Looking over my two recent pieces on Tom Jones, I saw that I addressed one issue but neglected to take on another. When citing that Agnes" in I DO! I DO! wore "an eighty-five-dollar hat," I …
I have heard the future, and it is here. It happened from listening to COMPANY, SWEENEY TODD, INTO THE WOODS and ASSASSINS. You're about to quote Katz from WOMAN OF THE YEAR and say, "So wha…
Although FUNNY GIRL is on Broadway no more, the revival cast album lives on to prove an important point. When musical theater enthusiasts discuss the 1964 musical, far more often than not th…
Only once, in the entire history of the Tonys, has a Best Play been adapted into a successful Broadway musical. Now that both bookwriter-lyricist Tom Jones and composer Harvey Schmidt have b…
And to think there was a time when musical theater enthusiasts assumed they'd get a new show from Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt every three years. Do the math. THE FANTASTICKS in 1960. 110 IN…
From the title HOW TO STEAL AN ELECTION, you might assume that the creators of this musical started writing it in mid-November 2020. No, it actually was a 1968 off-Broadway musical that was …
Let's not just concentrate on the fabulous flying car and astonishing video designs. If you read the Broadway reviews for BACK TO THE FUTURE: THE MUSICAL, you saw many a mention of those. So…
Doug Kingsman, David Mitchell and Tony Sheldon all agree on the number. These Australians who have been involved with Down Under theater for decades estimate that only 5% of American musical…
Have you heard about the surprising last line in the new, big-hit Barbie movie? Well, ending on a note of surprise is always good for a story " and that certainly goes for songs, too. Lyrici…
Here's a book that you can bet Ron DeSantis won't read. Ethan Mordden, one of the greatest writers to comment on American theater, has now concentrated on Gays on Broadway. Mordden begins in…
What's the best way to celebrate the 80th anniversary of World War II's "Operation Mincemeat"? No, don't go into your kitchen to mix currants, raisins, sugar, apples, candied citrus peel …
My recent experience with Jason Alexander has had me repeatedly playing the cast album of JEROME ROBBINS' BROADWAY. I've particularly savored Alexander and company in one of Broadway's great…
Whenever a great musical theater luminary dies, I listen to every cast album that represents this songwriter's work in chronological order. This past week has been especially moving, than…
Jason Alexander gave me a brilliant pre-emptive strike. That was late '88, I recall. He was about to open as the leading man of JEROME ROBBINS' BROADWAY. In addition to performing, he'd writ…
"Thank you, Boston!" So read the small round sticker that adorned the cover of some LA CAGE AUX FOLLES original cast albums. Given that hundreds of musicals had met with rapturous success in…
This week, you might wish that you lived in Pennsylvania. (Even if it's hot as hell in Philadelphia.) For The Keystone State, as it's chummily called, considers Flag Day " June 14th " a stat…
So, after writing the scores to HELLO, DOLLY! in 1964 and MAME in 1966, what could Jerry Herman do for an encore? In 1967, when DOLLY was on course to becoming the longest-running musical in…
These two brief stories are true. Walking down West 43rd Street last week, I saw a teenage boy and a teenage girl holding hands, swinging them back and forth, and loudly singi…
There have been knock-knock jokes, practical jokes and light-bulb jokes. But 60 years ago, the joke that was sweeping the country was the Tom Swifty. Never heard of it? Let your youth be you…
What does Chita Rivera not have in common with Jean Hersholt, Isabelle Stevenson and Irving G. Thalberg? She didn't have to die to get an award named for her. Next week, choreographers and d…
