Tuesday, December 16, 2025
That December 18th is the anniversary of Ossie Davis’ birth made me think of the 1962 musical BRAVO GIOVANNI. No, although Davis interacted with three musicals in his career, BRAVO GIOVANN…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, December 9, 2025
Shall we celebrate the 275th anniversary of the first time that a Broadway musical had a song with the word “swing” in its title? First-nighters who attended the December 3, 1750, perfor…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, December 2, 2025
Remember Employee of the Month, in which Zack Bradley and Vince Downey battled to become one? Recently seeing the 2006 film started me wondering which characters in musicals would be contend…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, November 25, 2025
The lyricist of TWO BY TWO who wrote “I feel like I’m ninety again” would have been 91 this week. Alas, Martin Charnin only made it to 84, for he died in 2019 – but not before leavin…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 03:07PMTuesday, November 18, 2025
You’d think that someone who refers to his grandfather as Pop Pop would be a little kid. No. In the current off-Broadway musical hit BEAU, the grandson is in his 20s, if not 30s. He’s Ac…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, November 11, 2025
As I watched the excellent production of BAT BOY at City Center, two other musicals came to mind. ANNIE and FOLLIES. You’re laughing. Fine. But back in 1977, many walked into the Alvin The…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, November 4, 2025
In case we needed a reminder that RAGTIME is magnificent, the new production at Lincoln Center proves it. Many musical theater aficionados have known its worth for almost 30 years. There are…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, October 28, 2025
So, how much faith do we place in numerologists and astrologers? Many of them claim that people born on four certain days of the month – the first, the 16th, the 27th and the 31st – are …
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, October 21, 2025
But no mention of KISS ME, KATE? Granted, film producer-director Stephen D.M. Smith was more interested in celebrating where Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne lived in This Place Matters! Ten Ch…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 10:52AMTuesday, October 14, 2025
Everything went quiet. This is what came to mind when the concert version of SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS was announced. It’ll play November 21-22 at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:31AMTuesday, October 7, 2025
If you want to know the historical details of The Stamp Act Congress that met 260 years ago this week, Google will tell all. For our purposes, though, let’s go far afield to the Broadway-c…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, September 30, 2025
This must be a first. What other book celebrates two theater artists, each of whom has a Broadway theater named for him? The Al Hirschfeld Theatre is on 45th Street west of Broadway while Th…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, September 23, 2025
Although he didn’t sing “A Boy Like That” in WEST SIDE STORY, Grover Dale still chose it as the title of his memoir. He does, after all, have a connection to that landmark musical that…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMWednesday, September 17, 2025
So, according to the records, September 17 is the day of the year on which most people are born. Now that we’re around the 260th day of 2025, let’s celebrate the birthdays on that date o…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 10:06AMTuesday, September 9, 2025
It all started with my wanting to do something nice for The Theatre World Awards – the 79-year-old organization that recognizes performers who make their Broadway and off-Broadway debuts. …
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, September 2, 2025
In a way, it could be considered a Bernadette Peters album. Most of the star’s longtime fans can tell you that over the decades, Peters has released six solo recordings. But she really did…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 10:46AMTuesday, August 26, 2025
What you don’t know – or don’t remember – about SWEENEY TODD could fill a book. Rick Pender has proved that by writing Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: Behind the Bloody Musical Ma…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, August 19, 2025
With all the talk about A CHORUS LINE’S 50th anniversary, let’s remember that without this excellent 1975 musical, there wouldn’t have been an excellent 2001 musical. A CLASS ACT. It t…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 10:42AMTuesday, August 12, 2025
Both friends and readers have asked me, “How did July 26 come and go without you commenting on A CHORUS LINE’s 50th anniversary?” Actually, I was saving it for this week, because Augus…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 10:16AMTuesday, August 5, 2025
Returning to the original cast album of REDWOOD had me recalling a column that was once a go-to feature in Ladies’ Home Journal. Starting in 1954 and continuing for several decades, this m…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 10:29AMTuesday, July 29, 2025
Congratulations to Rocco Landesman, Kenny Leon, Kathleen Marshall, Paul Tazewell, Richard Thomas, Tom Viola and – posthumously – Rebecca Luker. Earlier this month, they were voted into T…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, July 22, 2025
Let’s go back to November 15, 1956, when two very different events occurred in entertainment history. And yet, in one strange way, they were related. On this date, Elvis Presley’s record…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, July 15, 2025
There aren’t all that many documentaries that bring back actual memories, but Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story was one that did for me. I first encountered Ms. Minnelli when I …
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, July 8, 2025
Sometimes, scattering those postcards around town does pay off. That’s how I discovered a play called Thank You, Don Ameche. Lawrence A. Heman’s new comedy runs this week at The Sargent …
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, July 1, 2025
“Maybe it was a compliment. I’ll never know.” So writes Thomas Z. Shepard in his most informative memoir, Recording Broadway: A Life in Cast Albums. He’s referring to the leading cha…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 10:19AMTuesday, June 24, 2025
BEAU reminds us of an unshakable truth. When you were growing up – with as much love as you may have had from your parents – you probably received more from your grandparents. That’s w…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, June 17, 2025
Everyone I spoke to before the Tonys knew he’d be a shoo-in. And indeed, Jak Malone won the Best Featured Actor in a Musical prize. When his name was announced, I’m sure I wasn’t the o…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, June 10, 2025
Leslie Uggams was certainly surprised last week. Oh, she knew that she was receiving a Lifetime Achievement trophy from The Theatre World Awards. We had announced that weeks ago, and she was…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, June 3, 2025
THE PRODUCERS: THE NEW MEL BROOKS MUSICAL experienced that famous theory. Starting 25 years ago, THE PRODUCERS indeed saw that bad luck comes in threes. “Wait,” you’re saying, “it wa…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AMTuesday, May 27, 2025
And he was only three weeks away from his next birthday. True, anyone who’s 96 can’t count on becoming 97, but we would have wished that Charles Strouse could reach this June 7th and man…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 10:39AMTuesday, May 20, 2025
As soon as I returned home from seeing the London revival of OLIVER!, I reached for the original American cast album. Yes, original American cast, not original Broadway cast. Throughout 1962…
SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM 
