Monday, August 1, 2011
It was the month that I had even greater respect for Jim Miller, Joe Miller, Paul Roberts, Thom Snode and Ed Weissman. They're the ones who knew the answer to my seemingly impossible Brainte…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMWell, we made it to the New Year. The worst any of our tombstones will state as our death date is 2011.
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMTwelve-year old Bonnie Langford was in the wings waiting to perform at a benefit. Even at this tender age, she was already a seasoned stage veteran, having played Bonnie Butler in the 1970 m…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMEach December, they're as common as candy canes: the lists of the best and the worst productions of 2010.
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMOn Monday, I listed the nine best productions I saw all year, saying I'd save the 10th for today: a production I saw when I had one night in Paris.
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMIt started on Thursday, when "geof" on All That Chat noted that Dec. 16 was the 50th anniversary of the opening of Wildcat - the N. Richard Nash-Cy Coleman-Carolyn Leigh musical that starred…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMAllen Neuner wrote, "I enjoyed reading your review of (Ken Bloom's) new Hollywood Musicals book. I was struck by the author's comment that he couldn't include High School Musical I and II be…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMNow that it's close to December 25, friends and relatives have been asking me what I want for Christmas.
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMKen Bloom isn't at all worried about his first selection. When people see that his alphabetically arranged Hollywood Musicals: The 101 Greatest Song-and-Dance Movies of All-Time starts with …
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMAfter I replicated Allen Neuner's e-mail on Wednesday, I got a lovely deluge of responses from his asking "So put the question to your loyal readers: which made-for-TV musicals would they se…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMSo I see that a delightful personal nemesis of mine has died. Hillard Elkins succumbed to a heart attack last week at the age of 81. Doing the math, I now see that he was only 38 when I met …
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMMost every December, I moderate a panel for the Drama League's Christmas Luncheon. In the past, I've interviewed the stars of Wonderful Town, Regrets Only, Cymbeline, The Woman in White and …
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMWhen Jacob Shoesmith-Fox started going to the theater, it was Les Miserables, The Lion King and Aida (twice). "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was a show I memorized every word …
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMGotta get my old tuxedo pressed. Gotta sew a button on my vest. For on this Tuesday night Nov. 30 at 7:30 p.m., I'll be at Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Center (Broadway at 66th Street) to talk …
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMIt was the month that the unsinkable Sarah Palin, whose words are so well-received by so many, got her non-word "refudiate" named Word of the Year and placed in The Oxford English Dictionary.
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMHere comes a rash of closings. January 2 will see the expected end of Brief Encounter, Elf and The Pee-wee Herman Show. Two classic musicals -- Promises, Promises and West Side Story - will …
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMI liked to call him "the round-the-clock nurse of the fabulous invalid." He was John Willis, the editor of the Theatre World annuals and administrator of the Theatre World Awards. John died …
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMTo be sure, as we approach Thanksgiving we want to count all the blessings in our lives. Here's hoping that you have plenty in yours. I know I have plenty in mine - including the fact that y…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMSo it's Black Friday -- not to mention equally Black Saturday and Black Sunday - where many of us will start Christmas shopping in earnest. But what to get the theater enthusiast? For those …
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMI envy St. Martin de Porres. The 16th century Peruvian was said to have the ability to be in two places at one time. I, alas, cannot, and as a result, I'm missing two events between Friday a…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMAfter Faith Prince had her landmark success with Adelaide in Guys and Dolls in 1992, many musical theater enthusiasts were heard to say, "Wouldn't she make an ideal Ella Peterson in Bells Ar…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMOn Wednesday, I told about Sam Irvin's magnificent new biography: Kay Thompson from Funny Face to Eloise. If you're unaware of this terrific biographer -- and/or the dynamic composer-lyricis…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMWho'd expect that Elf would contain one of the most significant pieces of dialogue in the history of the Broadway musical?
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMI once asked Charles Strouse if he expected that "Baby, Talk to Me" was going to be Bye Bye Birdie's big hit. After all, it was the first real song in the overture, placed and played with su…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMA theater, a television special, a DVD and a book. There's still plenty going on for a man who was born when Abie's Irish Rose was Broadway's longest-running show and Herbert Hoover was in t…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AM"She was ahead of her time for nine decades," wrote Rex Reed. "She was our Holden Caulfield," said Marie Brenner. Liza Minnelli declared that she "conquered everything and moved on." Jule St…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMThe lights come up on a black woman just sitting. That's it: sitting. She's not talking to anyone or doing anything in particular. She's just sitting with a cake box on her lap. When Oklahom…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMMany couples take a trip to the Caribbean or Europe to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. Although the Dodges - Marcia Milgrom and Anthony - reached that august mark on Saturday, they…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMIn the summer of 1963, I started what would be a Wednesday ritual: Getting Variety and immediately turning to "Legit." Oh! Dennis O'Keefe was being replaced as Mary Martin's leading man in J…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMIt was the month that Damn Yankees' history repeated itself. 2010 was The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant to the Washington Senators - well, the team that started life as the Washington Se…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AMWe have a chance to see another vintage musical starting on Tuesday, as Three Wishes for Jamie gets an airing at Musicals Tonight! It originally opened on March 21, 1952 at the Hellinger, an…
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 07:54AM 
