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There were plenty of conversations such as this 57 years ago this week: MUSICAL THEATER SAVANT: From what I heard, you can’t even call it a musical. There’s no book. No story. Only four people standing on stage and singing one song after another. That’s entertainment??? MUSICAL THEATER FAN: Well, we all expect to see […]

This month, I wasn’t like most people who listened to “Jingle Bell Rock,” “Feliz Navidad” or, needless to say, “White Christmas.” No, first I took out my album of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Alan Menken and Lynn Ahrens did the immortal Dickens tale proud. Everybody has a favorite Menken tune – he’s given us so many […]

Did you know that when Pearl Bailey was on Broadway doing HELLO, DOLLY! she actually urged the public not to see the show? Well, not always, but certainly at certain performances. See if you’re surprised when you’re told the circumstances in Ron Fassler’s terrific new book THE SHOW GOES ON. Its subtitle is “Broadway’s Hirings, […]

Let’s hear it for demure! It’s Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year. Yes, in addition to Time’s Person of the Year and Sports Illustrated’’s Sportsperson of the Year, Dictionary.com annually chooses a word that, according to its recent press release, “isn’t just about popular usage” So why demure? Turns out it “was chosen because TikTok user […]

When we left Roxie Hart last Tuesday, she was singing “My Own Best Friend” – all by herself. Yes, John Kander and Fred Ebb originally conceived their song as a solo for the woman that Fred Casely wished he’d never met. Only as time went on did Velma Kelly, an equally guilty murderer, join the […]