484 stories from Masterworks Broadway
A century ago this month, people who read Liberty magazine were talking about Ring Lardner's newest short story. "Haircut" involves a barber who talked and talked while serving a customer si…
Fair warning: this column will appear to be something between a mild shill and a hard sell. But, really, I know you'll have a better time at OPERATION MINCEMEAT if you hear the cast album in…
"Has anyone noticed how many R&H works have kids in them?" Ethan Mordden asked that question in his 1992 book Rodgers & Hammerstein. "The answer," he then told us, "is nine out of el…
For the past weeks, I've been hypothesizing that Stephen Sondheim consciously or unconsciously reworked the musicals that his mentor Oscar Hammerstein wrote with Richard Rodgers. Some change…
I asked the question last week, and I'll ask it again. Have you ever noticed that Stephen Sondheim wound up writing new and edgier versions of the musicals that his mentor, Oscar Hammerstein…
The front cover of Christopher Anderson's 1983 book Father: The Figure and the Force says: Father. He was once the most important man in your life. He still is. On the other hand, Sigmund Fr…
It was heard so many times last season as people were leaving the revival of PURLIE VICTORIOUS. "Now I'd like to see the musical version!" And now they can. PURLIE, the 1970 musical adapted …
Why must there be an expiration date on something so important? February 10th through the 16th is the official "Random Acts of Kindness Week." But why stop there, when we could have a "Rando…
Let's take a look at the first 10 years of Best Musical Tony winners and see how many Broadway revivals they've had: All right, KISMET is a bit of a cheat, for when it was returned in 1978, …
That lyric from FOLLIES " "Thank-you-for-the-present-but-what's-wrong-with-it-stuff?" " will never be heard in the home of Cheryl Solimini and Martin Farawell. For Cheryl's birthday in 2017,…
Stewart F. Lane will bring back memories to many, as well as important history to others. His It Happened at the Palace is a coffee table book that will keep you up even if you don't drink a…
Elvis famously sang "Oh, well, a-bless my soul, but what's wrong with me?" but I'll instead say, "Oh, well, a-bless my soul, but what's wrong with them?" Two weeks ago at Graceland, a celebr…
With URINETOWN soon returning to the theatrical horizon (thanks to Encores!), memories from the past quarter-century are flooding back. Memory One: Late 1998. I…
There were plenty of conversations such as this 57 years ago this week: MUSICAL THEATER SAVANT: From what I heard, you can't even call it a musical. There's no book. No story. Only four peop…
This month, I wasn't like most people who listened to "Jingle Bell Rock," "Feliz Navidad" or, needless to say, "White Christmas." No, first I took out my album of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Alan Men…
Did you know that when Pearl Bailey was on Broadway doing HELLO, DOLLY! she actually urged the public not to see the show? Well, not always, but certainly at certain performances. See if you…
Let's hear it for demure! It's Dictionary.com's Word of the Year. Yes, in addition to Time's Person of the Year and Sports Illustrated''s Sportsperson of the Year, Dictionary.com annually ch…
When we left Roxie Hart last Tuesday, she was singing "My Own Best Friend" " all by herself. Yes, John Kander and Fred Ebb originally conceived their song as a solo for the woman that Fred C…
CHICAGO's hitting the 11,000-performance mark last month inspired me. I pulled out the Bob Fosse-Fred Ebb script from August 3, 1973 " 22 months before the show came to Broadway. Let's all s…
Maybe you don't know who Mae Anwerda Sloane or Annelu Burns were, but Jennifer Ashley Tepper sure does. They're just two of the dozens upon dozens of subjects that Tepper recounts in her ast…
Will the winner be THE OUTSIDERS or MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG? We're talking about the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. All right, there are four other nominees. But in the Char…
Zero Mostel as Peter Pan? Carol Channing as Lady Macbeth? Robert Preston and Sammy Davis, Jr. as the Dromio twins in THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE? Sounds crazy, no? But in 1964, Al Hirschfeld " ar…
YOU'RE A GRAND NEW BOOK (AND GRAND OLD CAST ALBUM) By Peter Filichia He died 82 years ago this week, but here's proof that he hasn't been forgotten. Elizabeth T. Craft's excellent new book Y…
It was one of the biggest theatrical hits of the 16th century. And this week, we'll have the opening of the 36th Broadway revival of a drama that first opened in New York 270 years ago. What…
"Listen, girls, the way to catch a man is to be a natural woman…" So said Lena Horne before she launched into "Pretty to Walk With," her opening song in JAMAICA, which opened 67 years ago …
