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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 thrilled that we thought of her for that honor. What she didn’t know is that we had arranged for Danielle Chambers, her daughter, […]

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 was a smash hit, wasn’t it?” Let’s start before the very beginning. In early 1998, Brooks received yet another offer to turn his 1968 Oscar-winning screenplay […]

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 many more. Orson Welles famously said that when it comes to hits, “You only need one” to make a reputation and […]

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, producer David Merrick believed that the musical that had been the biggest hit of the 1960-61 London season would soon become the biggest hit […]

idina Menzel wasn’t the only one galvanized by the story. Tina Landau was equally engaged when she heard about julia butterfly hill. (And yes, julia prefers small letters in the spelling of her name.) In 1997, when hill was a mere 23, she climbed a 1,000-plus-year-old redwood. After scaling 180 feet, she planted herself there […]