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Would you really be surprised to learn that such a sweetie as Florence Henderson was born on Valentine’s Day? She would have been seventy-three this week, but, alas, Henderson died on Thursday, Nov. 24th – just three days beyond the fifty-second anniversary of her recording of Fanny’s original cast album. That made me recall the […]

You’re pardoned if you’ve never known it, but since 1983, February 11th has been celebrated as National Inventors’ Day. Those who have been aware of the mini-holiday have honored such geniuses as Charles Babbage (who invented the computer), Karl Benz (the automobile), Willis Carrier (air-conditioner) and Hyman Kirsch (diet soda). Most honor Thomas Edison for […]

I couldn’t believe my good fortune. In a used bookstore, I found The Great Adventure for a mere seven dollars. Don’t recognize the title? It’s Arnold Bennett’s 1913 play which inspired the 1968 Broadway musical Darling of the Day. Last Friday, Jan. 27th marked the forty-ninth anniversary of its opening. Two Broadway blue-chippers wrote the […]

I take issue with something Jerry Herman once told me. “Until I wrote ‘If He Walked into My Life’ for Mame,” he said, “I had never written a ballad that I would call ‘classy.’” But what about “Let’s Not Waste a Moment” from Milk and Honey? I’d say that one’s pretty classy. The Tony committee […]

So did you know that when the original cast album of Bajour was recorded that one singer didn’t finish her song? At the end of the show’s big romantic ballad “Must It Be Love?” Nancy Dussault gave way on the final phrase to another singer. No, I didn’t know it, either. But that’s the type […]