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Musicals that take place in earlier eras tend to be specific about their time frames. Barnum said in its program “1835 to 1880.” Annie stated “Dec. 11–25, 1933” and even 1776 didn’t feel its title gave enough information, so it declared “May 8 through” – of course – “July 4th.” The program for Purlie, however, […]

Which of the hundreds of songs that Stephen Sondheim has written took him the least amount of time to complete? We’ll never know, but my supposition would be “No Life” from Sunday in the Park with George. You may assume I think this because it’s one of Sondheim’s shortest songs, clocking in at a mere […]

Have you been missing The Sondheim Review as much as I? More than a year has passed since we saw this nifty publication, which has meant, to quote two certain princes, agony. How we loved reading about matters Sondheimian from A (Anyone Can Whistle, Assassins, and even that piece of juvenilia, All That Glitters) to […]

Here’s betting that people enjoy Dear World at the York Theater Company’s Musicals in Mufti this weekend much more than audiences did in 1969. Not just because it has a fine leading lady in Tyne Daly. After all, the original production had no less than Angela Lansbury, who, two years earlier, had won a Best […]

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 […]