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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 […]

CHICAGO’s hitting the 11,000-performance mark last month inspired me. I pulled out the Bob Fosse-Fred Ebb script from August 3, 1973 – 22 months before the show came to Broadway. Let’s all see how the John Kander and Ebb score changed or was enhanced during that span, which included a tryout in Philadelphia. “All That […]