All stories by Brad Hathaway on BroadwayStars

Monday, May 25, 2015

Life Begins at 8:40 - Concert Cast Recording by Brad Hathaway

Consumer safety alert! This disk contains more songs with catchy rhythms that stick in your head than most heads can hold. Listen only when you have time to push repeat repeatedly.

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:58PM

Making the Scene by Brad Hathaway

Making the Scene: A History of Stage Design and Technology in Europe and the United States This handsome volume is both an impressive coffee table book with an almost endless progression of …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:58PM

Imagine This - the CD and DVD by Brad Hathaway

While it might seem improbable that a flop musical about the Holocaust ("Springtime for Hitler" without the irony) would get preserved on both a CD and DVD, Imagine This did.

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:58PM

The Addams Family - Original Cast CD by Brad Hathaway

Some cast recordings sound almost as good as the show sounds live in the theater. The Decca recording of The Addams Family sounds better.In the Lunt-Fantanne Theatre the sound system emphasi…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:58PM

La Cage aux Folles revival CD by Brad Hathaway

For Brad Hathaway, Kelsey Grammer's stellar performance is faithfully captured, and A. J. Shively's performance outshines that of Douglas Hodge on the PS Classics release.

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:58PM

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson by Brad Hathaway

Brad Hathaway reviews the "shortest (28 minutes) original cast album in recent memory."

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:58PM

The Hammersteins: A Musical Theatre Family by Brad Hathaway

The grandson of Oscar Hammerstein II (and, thus, the great-great grandson of the first Oscar Hammerstein, the impresario who all but established Times Square) pulls his theatrical family's s…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:58PM

Showtime by Brad Hathaway

"the masses don't want it … it's like coating bitter medicine with sugar, this business of feeding plot to an audience.” Who said it? Larry Stempel explains this and much more i…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:58PM

The Second Career of record producer Bruce Kimmel by Brad Hathaway

His view of the world of musical theatre concentrates on the light, fun, even chipper side - which you might expect of the man who conceived, wrote, composed, and co-directed The First Nudie…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:58PM

To Broadway,To Life! The Musical Theater of Bock and Harnick by Brad Hathaway

Philip Lambert takes on the seven musicals of Bock and Harnick one by one in six chapters covering 190 pages sandwiched between two introductory chapters on the pre-collaboration lives of th…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:58PM

Review: 'Defying Gravity' by Carol de Glere by Brad Hathaway

Brad Hathaway says,"Here is a book that explains just why it is so hard to make a musical - what “collaboration” actually means over the months and years that it takes to carry a…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:58PM

Goya ... A Life in Song by Brad Hathaway

Dionne Warwick, Placido Domingo, Gloria Estefan in Maury Yeston's musical. Hear them sing 'If I Loved You with this review.

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:58PM

Broadway - The American Musical by Brad Hathaway

A review of the PBS series, and of Michael Kantor's six hour exploration of the history of the Broadway musical stage, and its newly released paperback book

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:58PM

Max Liebman's televised operettas by Brad Hathaway

Review of the newly released DVD's from mid-50s tv productions of Naughty Marietta, The Desert Song and The Great Waltz.

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:58PM

Just released - Linda Eder sings Frank Wildhorne by Brad Hathaway

Vocalist Linda Eder, foremost interpretor of Wildhorne's music, sings 12 songs including 'Mad Hatter' from Wonderland and others never before recorded.

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:58PM
Thursday, July 10, 2014

Brad Hathaway’s final Theatre Shelf by Brad Hathaway

For over four years, this column has brought you reviews of theater-related CDs, DVDs and Books that you might want to have on your very own theater shelves. It has been a pleasure as well a…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:50AM
Wednesday, June 25, 2014

One Touch of Venus is back! New CD and DVD released by Brad Hathaway

So many of the great musicals of the 1940s, 50s and 60s have remained in the standard repertoire, being revived again and again and recorded over and over that you could be forgiven for thin…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:59AM
Thursday, June 5, 2014

Tony nominated musicals now on CD or coming soon by Brad Hathaway

The 2013-14 Broadway season has produced a wide variety of scores from musicals that we are fortunate to have had recorded commercially. Indeed, the season has been marked by a notable raft …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:00PM
Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Sheldon Harnick: Hidden Treasures, 1949-2013 by Brad Hathaway

One storyline in the history of the evolution of what we now know as “a musical” has been the progression of lyric writing from light verse to less rigid but often more potent fo…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:19AM
Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Dianna Ross and more top pop and jazz artists do show scores by Brad Hathaway

One vocal treatment of a Styne score that has been laying under the wraps of near obscurity for 45 years has just re-emerged in a digital re-release of note:"Diana Ross and the Supremes Sing…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 04:00PM
Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Fun Home, the musical from Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir by Brad Hathaway

We’ll take a look at the recordings of the Tony nominated musicals before the June 8 award telecast but, right now, there’s an original cast album of an Off Broadway musical that…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:35AM
Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Scenes and Monologues from Steinberg/ATCA New Play Finalists by Brad Hathaway

Read any good plays lately? I have a confession to make. I can’t read a play and come away with anything approaching the emotional satisfaction I get from the experience in the theater…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:23AM
Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Jarrod Spector Live at 54 Below by Brad Hathaway

Some artists who put together a cabaret show just pick a bunch of songs that they like to sing or that show off their talents. Others pick a theme or turn their cabaret show into an autobiog…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:41AM
Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Nothing Like a Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater by Brad Hathaway

Who is this Eddie Shapiro? How did he get to spend all this quality time with twenty (or twenty-one – more on this later) Tony Award winning leading ladies of Broadway fame including the l…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:20AM
Tuesday, March 4, 2014

From Broadway With Love, A Benefit Concert for Sandy Hook by Brad Hathaway

When show folk put their minds (and hearts) into it, they can raise any roof. On January 28th of last year, the roof that couldn’t contain their touching contributions to a benefit con…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:36AM
Thursday, February 20, 2014

Fosse by Brad Hathaway

Quick. Without looking at the title of this column, who was the only person to win the Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical on Broadway, the Oscar for the Best Director of a Movie and t…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:51PM
Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Who Speaks for Theater in the Digital Age? (We Should!) by Brad Hathaway

Like most good theater critics, I am a theater maven, a theater junkie, a theater lover. I went into theater criticism in order to spread the word about good work – to support quality thea…

SOURCE: bradhathaway.com at 06:41AM
Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Before Sound of Music and Smash – TV musicals, 1944 – 1996 by Brad Hathaway

Theater Shelf for February 4 – Television Musicals   The success of NBC’s live telecast of The Sound of Music last December has sparked interest in the televising of musical…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 06:02AM
Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Live recordings from NY nightclub, 54 Below by Brad Hathaway

Two years ago, when I was preparing the 2012 holiday gift guide, I received a press release from a new well-named label: Broadway Records. It announced the launch of a series of live recordi…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:38AM
Tuesday, January 7, 2014

A Ship Without a Sail by Brad Hathaway

How many biographies open with the reading of the subject’s will? Gary Marmorstein choses to open his biography of Lorenz Hart one week after Hart’s death as his younger brother …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:13AM
Thursday, December 12, 2013

Holiday Gifts for Theatre Lovers by Brad Hathaway

Suggestions from Brad Hathaway  The post Holiday Gifts for Theatre Lovers appeared first on DC Theatre Scene.

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:53PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards