Friday, December 20, 2013
You may know the song entitled "The Story of My Life" from SHREK, but do you know the musical called THE STORY OF MY LIFE? It has nothing to do with Pinocchio, Peter Pan or Papa Bear, as Jea…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 10:24AM[SHARE]"It was one of the best times I've had in my life," said my girlfriend. She'd just got off the annual Turner Classic Movies Classic Cruise.
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:10AM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Of all the musicals that have been nominated for Best Musical, only one has been Christmas-centric:
A Christmas Story: The Musical.
Yes, Tony-winners Annie and Rent as well as Tony-nominee…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 12:48AM[SHARE]Friday, December 13, 2013
When you mount a musical, you needn't slavishly follow a Broadway's production's template. In fact, some of the best subsequent productions of musicals have varied widely from the Broadway o…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 09:57AM[SHARE]As I write this, there are 12 days to Christmas. And if you're one of those Christmas shoppers who is still wondering what to get your friends, relatives and colleagues, I have a few suggest…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:34AM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 10, 2013
When was the last time that you really listened to The Sound of Music?
Musical theater enthusiasts tend to avoid mega-hits. We played them so much when we first came to know them, after we'd…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 01:48AM[SHARE]Friday, December 6, 2013
Listening to the fetching LOST BROADWAY AND MORE: VOLUME 5, I was reminded of that famous expression that Jule Styne was fond of quoting: "Musicals aren't written; they're rewritten."
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:03PM[SHARE]It's a long-held theory that people who are good at math are also good in music. So why not a musical about math? Many people are responsible for one aimed at the K-to-Grade Four set. It's T…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 08:27AM[SHARE]Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Did you miss A Bed and a Chair: A New York Love Affair? It was the Stephen Sondheim-Wynton Marsalis revue that played City Center a few weeks ago.
That's all right. Not being able to make i…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 12:09AM[SHARE]Sunday, December 1, 2013
It was the month that SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK finally announced its long-anticipated closing. Considering that we don't have access to the financial records, we'll take at face value t…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 01:36PM[SHARE]Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Even those super-intellectual students at Harvard University have been known to say on their rare off-hours "Hey, kids! Let's put on a show!" And so, an intrepid band of undergrads got toget…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 09:24AM[SHARE]Monday, November 25, 2013
Don't let December 1 go by without celebrating the 100th birthday of one of Broadway's favorite stars.
"Mary Martin" sounds as if it's a stage name, doesn't it? In fact, it's the actual na…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:32PM[SHARE]Friday, November 22, 2013
"Well, Spider-Man's initials are S & M ..." That's how I began my sit-down with Glen Berger at the Drama Book Shop last week. Berger co-authored SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK -- first with J…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 02:20PM[SHARE]The Pennsylvania Players certainly got the timing right. Just before the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, the troupe presented Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 10:21AM[SHARE]Tuesday, November 19, 2013
"Fifty years from now, they'll still be arguing about the grassy knoll, the Mafia, some Cuban crouched behind a stockade fence."
The lines come from a surreal scene in Assassins. Twenty-sev…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 01:21AM[SHARE]Friday, November 15, 2013
BIG FISH is struggling and closing. AFTER MIDNIGHT is running and thriving.
I saw both and preferred BIG FISH.
Not because BIG FISH was such a great musical. It doesn't sport Andrew Li…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:03AM[SHARE]Monday, November 11, 2013
I was a little shocked while watching Charlotte Moore's splendid revival of Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock at the Irish Repertory Theatre.
I wasn't surprised that J. Smith Cameron was …
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:09PM[SHARE]Friday, November 8, 2013
You want to do a musical that has solid name recognition — a great big Broadway show — but you want to challenge yourself and your staff, too. How ’bout SINGIN’ IN TH…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 10:46AM[SHARE]While I was reading an advance copy of Carolyn Quinn's MAMA ROSE'S TURN " an extraordinary biography of you-know-who -- I was reminded of chess.
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 09:34AM[SHARE]Monday, November 4, 2013
At last! After years of waiting, one of the most endearing scores of recent vintage has finally been recorded and released.
It's going to be in a number of stockings that are hung by the ma…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:44PM[SHARE]Friday, November 1, 2013
What was the worst-received show of the month? No, not THE SNOW GEESE, but the interminable half-hour documentary that preceded the broadcast of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG. Worse, because it reve…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 10:13AM[SHARE]Monday, October 28, 2013
Having a Halloween party? Many of my friends do, although they do demand that their guests come in costumes that were seen in Broadway musicals.
My favorite memory: I was dressed in Hugh O'…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:44PM[SHARE]Friday, October 25, 2013
Directors of PARADE must cringe numerous times when they witness their production's first preview. They often see that after many of Jason Robert Brown's songs end, the audience doesn't appl…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 10:21AM[SHARE]Yes, the third Sunday of every June has been reserved for Father's Day since 1910. But for me this year, the third Saturday in October was truly Father's Day.
For on Oct. 19, I saw not on…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:41AM[SHARE]Monday, October 21, 2013
Broadway already had Starbucks long before every street corner did. Starbuck Number One appeared as a pivotal character in N. Richard Nash's play The Rainmaker fifty-nine years ago next week…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:45PM[SHARE]Friday, October 18, 2013
"That girl is brave," a man said with great admiration permeating his voice. He was sitting behind me in the black-box Shaeberle Studio at Pace University in downtown New York. If a performa…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 10:40AM[SHARE]What I did the last couple of weeks can't compare to August Wilson's American Century Cycle - in which he wrote a play for each decade of the twentieth century. But I couldn't help noticing …
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:40AM[SHARE]Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Forty-seven years ago this week, Cabaret opened in Boston, where the show would have its sole pre-Broadway tryout. Although Tony-winner Lotte Lenya and Tony-nominee Jack Gilford were "only" …
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 02:04AM[SHARE]Friday, October 11, 2013
Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler sang in BAKER STREET "What a Night This Is Going to Be." Well, starting last Friday, I thought, "What a week this is going to be," for I'd be seeing three mu…
SOURCE: Kritzerland at 07:39AM[SHARE]Tuesday, October 8, 2013
We don't usually get terribly sentimental about theaters, but in this case we must make an exception.
On September 29, the Shubert Theatre on West 44th Street celebrated its hundredth anniv…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 12:09AM[SHARE]Friday, October 4, 2013
Here's some advice to directors who'd like to do SHREK. Don't dread the thought of that heavy latex headpiece that your Shrek would wear. Do as Stephen L. Fredericks did in his production of…
SOURCE: Music Theatre International at 08:44AM[SHARE]Loading more stories…
