Blog

It’s the last traditional score from a Broadway musical to yield five hit songs that most everyone in the nation knew at the time. It was the precise middle of the ‘60s, and the musical was The Roar of the Greasepaint – the Smell of the Crowd. It had a book, music and lyrics by […]

Isn’t it queer? In “Send in the Clowns,” Desiree sings about “making my entrance again with my usual flair.” And yet, in A Little Night Music, Desiree sings this lyric long after she’s made her first-ever entrance – one that isn’t full of flair. For Hugh Wheeler and Sondheim had decided that provincial actress Desiree […]

There’s not much left at Flushing Meadows to remind us of the 1964-65 World’s Fair. Oh, there’s the Unisphere, of course, and the New York Hall of Science. But the State Pavilion hasn’t held up well and the Heliport is now a banquet facility. Starting this week, however, we have another reminder of New York’s […]

This week, New York has the chance to rediscover the first musical for which a woman received not one, not two, not three but four Tony nominations. What a shame that Elizabeth Swados – tabbed in 1978 for Best Book, Best Score, Best Direction and Best Choreography for Runaways — won’t be here to see it. The […]

John Verderber, one of our most promising musical theater writers, asked a terrific question on Facebook the other day. “‘The Room Where It Happens,’” he wrote, citing a ditty in Hamilton, “is on its way to becoming a famous musical theatre song. And in keeping with that theme, there’s a room where it happened that […]