Blog

Whenever I encountered her, I couldn’t be sure if she’d greet me with a warm kiss or give me a look that said she’d like to cut my throat. That was Elaine Stritch, mercurial enough to suggest that Mercury was always in retrograde. My feelings for the late star weren’t quite love-hate, but like-dislike. So […]

In 1977, when Stephen Schwartz had the idea of musicalizing Studs Terkel’s WORKING – subtitled “People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do” – he eventually decided not to take a business-as-usual approach. Because the series of oral histories dealt with so many varied occupations – mason, […]

I’m not saying that I was a major contributor of the $753,321 that was raised, but I was responsible for some of it. This happened on Sunday, October 3 at The 35th annual Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction. It’s produced by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, so all monies go to a worthwhile cause. I […]

Last week, we discussed Cyril Ritchard, who won the 1954-55 Donaldson Award for both Best Actor in a Musical and Best Featured Actor in a Musical. (Don’t ask. Who can explain it? Who can tell you why?) That said, I did more research on the Donaldsons, which were administered by Billboard. Quite a few Masterworks […]

So did you remember to talk like a pirate on “International Talk like a Pirate Day”? No? Did you even know there was such a thing? Well, there is, and has been for more than a quarter-century. Back in 1995, two Oregonians deemed September 19th as the day when people should greet each other with […]