A TALL ACHIEVEMENT Seeing Tommy Tune on CBS reminded me of one of my Broadway obsessions. I saw GRAND HOTEL 4x in New York and to this day I regard it as the greatest directorial achievement I have witnessed among several hundred Broadway productions. This Wright & Forrest score,…

COME BLOW YOUR HORN! You know the nursery rhyme… Little Boy Blue BY MOTHER GOOSE Little boy blue, Come blow your horn, The sheep’s in the meadow, The cow’s in the corn. But where is the boy Who looks after the sheep? He’s under a haystack, Fast asleep. I…

EXPERIMENTAL THEATRE IN THE EAST VILLAGE I began my performing career at university (after a disappointing high school audition for Greek tragedy). My college professor, Dr.Arthur Sinclair, was a disciple of Caffe Cino / La Mama’s so-called “New Theatre” techniques espoused by the always surprising and renowned Off-Off-Broadway…

THEY DESERVE YOUR THANKS! I believe David Ogden Stiers passed away at age 75. He will always be remembered for his TV work on “M*A*S*H”, though I have a different recollection. One of my first Broadway memories was of Bob Randall & Stephen Schwartz’s THE MAGIC SHOW at…

STAR STRUCK? Not really. Though I occasionally succumb to  some rambunctious stomach flutterings. There I was awaiting curtain up for THE NEWS, a 1985 new Broadway musical created by Paul Schierhorn and starring Jeff Conaway and Anthony Crivello. This Georgian style, modest-sized (597 seat) HELEN HAYES THEATRE resides…

CLOSE A LITTLE FASTER? You might want to give a listen to a 1983 score of the Broadway musical DANCE A LITTLE CLOSER, the last project on the Great White Way by one of the giants of musical theatre – Alan Jay Lerner. His wife at the time,…

JANE…OH, JANE I am not quite sure why I love JANE EYRE, THE MUSICAL so much. Maybe it’s because I spent so many years as an English teacher. It inhabits my soul with its themes of forgiveness, redemption and love. The Paul Gordon score is haunting. It began…

EASE ON DOWN THE ROAD Saw the original Broadway production of THE WIZ at the Majestic Theatre in the mid-Seventies. Yes, there have been other shows that played this theatre besides THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Cost of the tickets was in the teens rather than today’s…

PLAYING THE PALACE If one is a theatre aficionado, he has certain moments on the stage that are indelibly imprinted in his mind. One of mine relates to LAUREN BACALL. She was the Hollywood legend known for her film noir movies, her sultry demeanor, her famed romance with…