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If you’re in a bridge tournament and play a Jack – only to see your opponent put a King on the table – you may hear the trick-taker say, “Don’t send a boy out to do a man’s job.” That, however, is what The New Yorker did when assigning D. T. Max to interview Stephen […]

This must be unprecedented. Visit the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on West 46th Street, and you may be equally astonished. The signage is up for the upcoming revival of SWEENEY TODD, the show’s third Broadway revival in the last third-of-a-century. Not bad for a musical that deals with corruption, blackmail, serial killing, cannibalism, profiteering and mentally unbalanced […]

In baseball, whenever a pitcher becomes tired and ineffective, a new pitcher known as a reliever succeeds him, in order to prevent further damage. The one who does this most consistently will at the end of the season receive an award called “Reliever of the Year.” We don’t have such a prize on Broadway, but […]

Devoted musical theater aficionados know that the nine-performance ANYONE CAN WHISTLE was Stephen Sondheim’s shortest-running show. They can also tell you that MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, despite almost doubling that run, was the second shortest. Their respective weak one-week and two-week stays have made Broadway mavens easily recall them. But few can immediately tell you […]

Why are there such babyish voices on “Miracle”? If you haven’t yet seen the excellent feature film of ROALD DAHL’S MATILDA THE MUSICAL – but know the original cast album – this might be your first question when you listen to the soundtrack. The kids who sang it on Broadway – and have been singing […]