Monday, April 28, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . On the wings of angels comes The Billy Stritch Trio for a six-performance engagement at Birdland Jazz Club. Joined by Michael O’Brien on bass and Eric Halvorson…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 06:26PMReview by Ron Fassler . . . At the age of twelve, I began weekly sojourns into Manhattan from my home on Long Island with the mission of seeing every Broadway show possible. Keeping strict r…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 12:15PMSunday, April 27, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . With the Tony Awards deadline fast upon us, two final shows are slipping in under the wire, Dead Outlaw and Real Women Have Curves, both opening tonight (I’l…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 09:49PMFriday, April 25, 2025
A pensive Al Pacino, circa the 1970’s, his most defined decade as an actor.April 25, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler
I’ve written about him before, but there’s alwa…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 09:50AMThursday, April 24, 2025
By Ron Fassler . . . Having made her Broadway debut at the age of eight as a replacement in the title role of Matlida at the Shubert Theatre, actress Fina Strazza has returned to the nei…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 01:20PMTuesday, April 22, 2025
Donna McKechnie onstage at 54 Below in her new Sondheim show.April 22, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler
In her current three-performance engagement at 54 Below, the amazin…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 04:50PMMonday, April 14, 2025
Chita Rivera and Dick Van Dyke perform “Rosie” in “Bye Bye Birdie” (1960).Producer Edward Padula was worried. He liked the show he was working hard to raise money for, but he was ta…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 10:28AMSunday, April 13, 2025
Eleven of the twelve beauty contestant combatants in JR2 Spotlight Musical Theatre Company’s production of “Smile” (Photo by Russ Roland).April 13, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, …
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 06:57PMFriday, April 11, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . One time, at the finish of one of the gatherings in his honor that Stephen Sondheim received regularly in his later years, the master composer-lyricist took to th…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 03:56PMThursday, April 10, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . When a truly old-fashioned musical like Boop! The Musical opens, offering a beatific heroine, dazzling choreography, and hummable tunes that send you out into t…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 01:40PMWednesday, April 9, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . A dozen or so years ago, when journalist Patrick Bringley found himself unsure of what to do with the rest of his life, his restlessness caused him to quit his hi…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 11:17AMMonday, April 7, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . You may be forgiven if you’re not familiar with playwright Bertolt Brecht’s The Mother, as it did have its premiere nearly a century ago in 1932 Berlin. Writ…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 10:36PMSaturday, April 5, 2025
George Clooney as Edward R. Murrow in “Good Night, and Good Luck” (Photo: Emilio Madrid).April 5, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler.
The current state of journalism in …
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 11:50AMThursday, April 3, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . I wasn’t sure what to expect when the location of Ken Urban’s new play Danger and Opportunity took me to a theater called East Village Basement. Located at …
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 11:10PMWednesday, April 2, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . The first time that audiences heard the precise and profane language of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross was nearly forty-two years ago in September of 1983. …
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 12:50PMFriday, March 28, 2025
Brian Stokes Mitchell and Kate Baldwin in 2025’s “Love Life” (photo by Joan Marcus).March 28, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler
You would think that the only musical …
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 05:04PMThursday, March 27, 2025
By Ron Fassler . . . The York Theatre, founded in 1969 by Janet Hayes Walker, has rightly earned its place as an integral part of the city landscape from which it draws its name. Walker,…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 02:38PMSaturday, March 22, 2025
Stephen Sondheim (1930–2021). Photo by Richard Avedon.March 22, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler.
“Oh, if life were made of moments,Even now and then a bad one —�…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 10:34AMFriday, March 21, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . Upon entering A.R.T.’s Mezzanine Theatre on Manhattan’s West Side for the off-Broadway premiere of Max Mondi’s Maybe Tomorrow, you are greeted by a ¾ wrap…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 08:04AMSunday, March 16, 2025
My ticket stub from 56 years ago (note the tape marks). It used to hang on my bedroom wall.Fifty-six years ago yesterday afternoon, I took my seat as a just-turned twelve-year old in seat E…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 09:49AMFriday, March 14, 2025
By Ron Fassler . . . Two-time Tony nominee Jessica Hecht, an actress who seems to always be working on the New York stage (that is when she isn’t shooting films or television shows), is t…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 05:30PMTuesday, March 11, 2025
Cabaret Review by Ron Fassler . . . For those of you who only know Norbert Leo Butz from his numerous Broadway and off-Broadway credits in both musicals and straight plays (nineteen of the…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 11:29AMMonday, March 10, 2025
Review by Ron Fassler . . . I was an adolescent-teenager in the 1960s and 70s when Judy Collins was among the most prolific and influential singer-songwriters of her generation. I actively l…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 01:38PMWednesday, March 5, 2025
Jacob Julius Garfinkel, also known as John Garfield (1913–1952).March 5, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler
Yesterday was my birthday. I share the date with an actor born i…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 04:29PMMonday, March 3, 2025
“Sparking greater human connections through musical storytelling, providing unforgettable performances that reflect the world around us and reimagining what the choral experience can be.�…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 12:51PMThursday, February 27, 2025
Gene Hackman in “Under Fire” (1983).February 27, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler.
Waking up to news of the death of Gene Hackman has been a shocking blow due to circu…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 04:23PMMonday, February 24, 2025
Theatre Review by Ron Fassler . . . The plays of the prolific Samuel D. Hunter have one common theme: connection. The Idaho born and reared Hunter, the region in which he sets the majori…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 09:49PMTheater PIzzazz’s Ron Fassler recently had the pleasure of discussing The Jonathan Larson Project with cast member Taylor Iman Jones. Currently in previews at the Orpheum Theatre on Second…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 02:50PMThursday, February 20, 2025
Theatre Review by Ron Fassler . . . In the 1970s, it was extremely difficult for a woman in America to experience any sense of empowerment without first getting some sort of economic or soci…
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 10:03PMCabaret Review by Ron Fassler . . . If you’re a theatre fan then you are probably aware of Charles Kirsch’s podcast “Backstage Babble.” The now seventeen-year-old has recorded more …
SOURCE: Theater Pizzazz at 05:20PMTuesday, February 18, 2025
Hal Holbrook on the left and his alter ego, Mark Twain, on the right.February 18, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler
Yesterday marked 100 years since the birth of Harold Row…
SOURCE: ronfassler.medium.com at 12:18PM 
