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So does Hugh Jackman’s appearing as The Greatest Showman in the current movie musical remind you of a Broadway show? Yes, me too: Barnum, the 1980 hit musical that spent twenty-five months at the St. James Theatre. Both properties do indeed concern Phineas T. Barnum (1810-1891) who was famous for saying “There Is a Sucker […]

In 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor became first female justice on the Supreme Court. As a result, many news organizations named her “Woman of the Year.” With apologies to Justice O’Connor, those of us who follow Broadway will always insist that 1981’s Woman of the Year was Lauren Bacall – especially after she’d won a Tony […]

There have been many Broadway musicals that had state-of-the-art topicality when they were originally written. Call Me Madam in 1950 offered a thinly veiled Ambassador Perle Mesta. Happy Hunting told of goings-on around Grace Kelly’s 1956 wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco. In 1960, Bye Bye Birdie dealt with the military’s drafting of a rock […]

So would the man manning the information desk at the Art Institute of Chicago know what I meant? He could be pardoned if he didn’t, for I would be asking my question in a purposely oblique way. I did smile nicely to show I really wasn’t out for trouble. Then I posed the question: “Where […]

“While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,  Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free. Let us all be grateful for a land so fair As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.”  Can you identify the song from which these words come? Believe me, you’ve heard the song hundreds of […]