Conventional wisdom is difficult to alter, but here goes: contrary to what has been widely written, Jesus Christ Superstar was not the first concept recording of a musical to spawn a w…
First Responder, 1 train, September 2021 (photo © Howard Sherman) Perhaps because I am hyperverbal " in person, in my writing, in my consumption of information, in my choice of entertainm…
Take careful note of the quotation marks, because the headline above doesn't nod to theatre tickets or the wholesale embrace of casual fornication. The reference, sorry to disappoint you, re…
Kaki Marshall and Howard Sherman, on their last in-person visit, December 2019 Today, my book is published. This is the realization of a dream that I had given up on long ago. But my most ov…
Taking extreme care during the pandemic, particularly when New York was the first and hardest hit in the earliest days, my journeys beyond my apartment and the immediate surroundings put sig…
"So friends, this is the way we were in our growing up and in our marrying and in our doctoring and in our living and in our dying." Pull out a copy of Thornton Wilder's Our Town and, …
While the phrase "public domain" may hold little meaning for you (or make your eyes glaze over), January 1, 2019 will mark a significant milestone in that seemingly arcane distinction. That'…
There are many who remain upset with the owners of the Hotel Edison for their ejection of the Edison Cafe several years ago, and you can count me among them, because along with the cafe went…
Of the many criteria one might apply when considering what makes a great teacher, I think it's fair to say that the ability to see and encourage something in a student that they do not yet n…
The Florida Association for Theatre Education invited me to be the keynote speaker at their annual conference, held in Orlando October 12-14, 2017. The text below represents an edited versio…
On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal published an essay by the playwright and screenwriter David Mamet, entitled "Charles Dickens Makes Me Want To Throw Up." As it turns out, the essay was j…
I cannot claim that I was completely surprised. By the same token, I didn't know exactly what to expect. A press release first made me aware of Diva: Live From Hell, and I lingered on it …
For those who work in the theatre, the idea of defending the term "live action" would seem an unnecessary task. But as movie marketers, abetted uncritically by the entertainment press, seem …
Let's start with the positive, though I'm afraid that won't last long. In her New York Times article, "Might Ivanka Trump Speak Up If Her Father Guts The Arts?," Robin Pogrebin makes a serie…
Two weeks ago, the musical Ragtime came under fire at a high school in Cherry Hill, New Jersey for its deployment of racial slurs in telling a anti-racism story that is intended to evoke …
Given that it was merely a stray amusement that became a popular offshoot of my photography hobby, "Times Square Weirdness" went worldwide this year with my discovery of Mike Hot-Pence…
In some ways, it might make more sense if I wrote this post about some of my least-read pieces of 2016, because I value almost everything I write equally and never quite know why some get…
Last week was not the first time I've been puzzled by Hilton Als's writing on theatre. I didn't understand the rather cruel rationale by which he described the late playwright Wendy Wasserst…
For those unfamiliar with "Times Square Weirdness," my series of photos of the odder denizens of Times Square, shared frequently on my Facebook page, you may be surprised to learn of my fami…
Having spent 13 of the past 21 hours embedded at the American Airlines Theatre with The 24 Hour Plays, I'm reaching my natural state of exhaustion, without the participatory exhilaration of …
The best laid plans: any effort to write meaningfully about being embedded with The 24 Hour Plays will have to wait. All I can manage to do is process some of the many photos I've taken " an…
Having long been intrigued by the 24 hour play concept, it was a stroke of fortune that when I affiliated with The New School a year ago, I was provided with office space that is shared with…
How to describe how I've felt this week? In approximate order: anxious, worried, heartsick, afraid, resolved, exhausted, embraced. But it wasn't until this morning that I felt something that…
I wish that I could write a play, but I haven't the talent. I wish that I could compose a musical score, but I haven't the gift. I wish that I could dance, but I have neither the freedom in …
On November 4, composer Jeanine Tesori was the keynote speaker at the fourth annual "Stage The Change: Theatre as a Social Voice" event, co-sponsored by the Tilles Center at Long Island Univ…