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So far, 351 people have given their opinions on a question I asked on Facebook. And, my, have I been surprised with what so many wrote. Let’s start at the very beginning. My beloved Linda approached a well-known lyricist at a party. She said that she adored a certain song of his. Linda even put […]

No, Henry does not have commitment issues. Clare knows that’s not the reason why the boyfriend who became her husband doesn’t see her for long periods of time. From the outset, she knew that he wouldn’t always be there for her. But she loved him so much that she settled for having as little or […]

No, Oxford’s “Word of the Year” for 2023 is not a nickname for a character in GREASE. But by now, you probably know that “rizz” doesn’t refer to Rizzo. It’s a short way of saying “charisma.” And that brings us to Time magazine’s choice for “Breakthrough of the Year”: Alex Newell, who had plenty of […]

Whether you loved it 42 years ago or sometime after, here’s a way to have even more respect for MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG. Read the original play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. You’ll find that George Furth and Stephen Sondheim greatly improved it. First and undoubtedly least, they renamed the characters. Richard Niles […]

Stephen Sondheim is getting closer to breaking his own record. His 1964 musical ANYONE CAN WHISTLE ran a mere nine performances but has received three cast albums. First, the one with the original cast, then a 1995 concert recording (both of which are on Masterworks Broadway) and a 2020 studio cast recording. No musical that […]