Larry Gelbart, one of the great stage, screen and television writers has died.
posted by dances_with_sneetches on Sep 11, 2009 - 35 comments

On Sunday New York City closed two of the busiest sections of perhaps the most famous street in the U.S. to traffic and created pedestrian plazas in the "Crossroads of the World" (and also in Herald Square) [brief plan / NYCDOT detailed plan]. [more inside]
posted by 2bucksplus on May 27, 2009 - 59 comments

Only 325 days until Broadway's Hilton Theater hosts the first preview of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, a $40 million musical directed by Juliet Taymor with music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge of U2. Investors hope it will fare better than another big-budget pulp adaptation.
posted by Joe Beese on Feb 25, 2009 - 35 comments

Patti Lupone freaks out - mid-song - at someone taking pictures during a performance of "Gypsy." Audio clip on YouTube. Dished about at Gawker and The Village Voice. [more inside]
posted by greekphilosophy on Jan 20, 2009 - 50 comments

Songs that clearly and directly address or reference economic hardships and injustice in America, not to mention that do so in a bitter, regretful tone, don't often become enormous hits. Matter of fact, it's such a rare phenomenon that you could count such songs on... um, one finger? Yes, Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney's iconic Brother Can You Spare a Dime is that song. Covered by a surprisingly wide range of singers through the years, the song still resonates. [more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite on May 10, 2008 - 55 comments

The Worst Flop in Broadway History? First staged in 1983 for only one night, Moose Murders (wiki) is legendary as the flop-of-flops in Broadway history--and is now being revived for its kitsch value. [more inside]
posted by ornate insect on Apr 20, 2008 - 15 comments

Can I Get a Napkin Here? A food court musical brought to us by the fine folks of Improv Everywhere . For more musicals in public places, check out "Reach! A Lecture Musical!" and "Reading on a Dream: A Library Musical" both from Prangstgrup.
posted by Del Far on Mar 10, 2008 - 44 comments

The Battery's Down is a new musical web series about an aspiring New York actor, Jake Wilson - ostensibly playing himself. Written and directed by Wilson, it also contains cameos by Broadway actors - and feature songs composed by up-and-coming musical theatre composers (each song is also available for download). [more inside]
posted by crossoverman on Mar 9, 2008 - 3 comments

Who Can I Turn To? - Anthony Newley, 1965 [more inside]
posted by post punk on Jan 25, 2008 - 29 comments

Nearly 12 Years Old, ‘Rent’ Is to Close. The 1996 Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning musical will close its doors at New York's Nederlander Theatre on June 1st. The 7th longest-running musical in Broadway history, it is based on Puccini's La Boheme and is credited with bringing young people to musical theatre and the invention of Broadway Rush ticketing - it sold its first two rows for $20: first in , first served on the day of the performance. [more inside]
posted by crossoverman on Jan 16, 2008 - 77 comments

Musical fans, meet Seth Rudetsky. Watch him (YT links) deconstruct "Turkey Lurkey" and Barbra Streisand or accompany Raul Esparza on "Defying Gravity." Learn from his Broadway 101 parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6a and 6b.
posted by adrober on Dec 5, 2007 - 5 comments

As the Writer's Guild of America strike wears on into its second week, it seems appropriate to remember why they're striking in the first place. If you ask me, the terms seem almost too reasonable. But in the defense of the studios, I'm sure the businessmen involved have gotten used to spending those millions of dollars, and wouldn't want to see them go. Now that Broadway has shut down in allegiance to their Hollywood compatriots, things are looking grim for anything to be resolved without more financial bloodshed.
posted by GoodAaron on Nov 10, 2007 - 90 comments

Broadway's original Effie White, Jennifer Holliday, has been very open about how haunted and snubbed she felt during the production of the Dreamgirls movie. In particular she was hurt when, without permission, her own singing voice was used in a theatrical trailer to promote the production that had completely shut her out. Yesterday at the BET Awards she was finally given some overdue recognition and invited to join Jennifer Hudson onstage for a duet of the song she made famous. You may have heard the song a hundred times, but try to make it 101. 'Cuz seriously, the girls can sing. Previously.
posted by miss lynnster on Jun 27, 2007 - 46 comments

"Someone in a Tree" -- an incedibly rare video from the original, 1976 production of "Pacific Overtures." I grew up listening to an L.P. of these same people perform this same song, but I've never before seen them perform it. I grew up in Southern Indiana, so actually seeing a Broadway show was out of the question. But I loved this song, and -- years later -- I read that it was Stephen Sondheim's favorite of all the songs he ever wrote. Today, I found this video on YouTube and it was like finally seeing someone after being blind for years. I still have chills running up and down my spine. Also: Sondheim forum, online journal, and various gems (and bombs) on youtube -- including the man himself teaching a master class and this 12-year-old's spirited performance!
posted by grumblebee on Apr 28, 2007 - 14 comments

Broadway.com has been doing a video diary of Legally Blonde: the Musical as it moves toward Broadway. See the first rehearsal with director/choreographer Jerry Mitchell, visit a costume fitting, or catch a sneek peek of the show's pre-Broadway tryout in San Francisco. Legally Blonde starts performance in New York City on April 3rd.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero on Mar 26, 2007 - 13 comments

"Spotlight Live ... puts guests in the limelight in a way that will surpass their wildest dreams. Guests can walk in the door for dinner and walk out the door a star" In the age of American Idol, why go to see a show on Broadway, when it's your birthright to be a show on Broadway, complete with your own professional back-up singers and dancers?
posted by stagewhisper on Mar 17, 2007 - 9 comments

I'm a Jewish Yankee Doodle Dandy and other Yiddish sheet music on topics ranging from the Dreyfus affair to interreligious romance. How Broadway evolved from Yiddish theater.
posted by jonp72 on Sep 22, 2006 - 10 comments

You can keep your Simon, Randy and Paula, I'll take Barbara Cook any day. Here is the Broadway legend's two hour master class (it's a REALTIME video from The New York Public Library) and it'll teach you more about singing, phrasing and music than every moment of American Idol combined. At least watch the first 20 minutes, you'll be amazed.
posted by adrober on Apr 10, 2006 - 7 comments

Dancer Sues Movin' Out for breach of contract and sexual harassment she claims to have suffered during her run in the National Touring company of the Broadway hit. In an interesting move, the dancer, Alice Alyse, has created a lawsuit website to explain her side of the story. Perhaps she'll win, but will she ever work again?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero on Mar 23, 2006 - 29 comments

Buying Rare Race Records in the South. Music That Americans Loved 100 Years Ago. The Cheney Talking Machine. Just three among dozens of amazing articles about early recording machines and American popular music at the astonishingly detailed site of Tim Gracyk, author of Popular American Recording Pioneers: 1895-1925. Scroll down for bios of forgotten stars, including Nora Bayes - who performed in the Follies of 1907, before Flo Ziegfeld's name became part of the title, George W. Johnson - "the most important African-American recording artist of the 1890s," and piano player Zez Confrey, whose sheet music for the 1921 hit "Kitten on the Keys" sold over a million copies and became "the third most-frequently recorded rag in history."
posted by mediareport on May 17, 2005 - 39 comments

A couple years ago, they did SILENCE! the musical version of Silence of the lambs, now they're working on "RoboCop The Musical" with this track uploaded as a preview entitled "Murphy, It's You" performed by RoboCop and Anne Lewis.
posted by mathowie on Apr 25, 2005 - 24 comments

Doris Eaton Travis. Doris Eaton returned to Broadway 87 years after her premiere. Her film debut was only 84 years ago. She wrote her award-winning autobiography when she was only 99.
posted by dances_with_sneetches on Apr 16, 2005 - 3 comments

"When stewardesses were sexy and the world was sexist" is the tagline of this years-in-making musical by Suzy Conn, who also runs the blogway baby musicals log (which talks about this musical quite a bit). It's meant to be based around the early 1960's, when airlines were truly a luxury, not unlike a sea cruise or a first-class train ride pre-Amtrak. (The website spends some time going on about Braniff International, and it's worth it to check out the history of that airline. This is also laid out on top of the era of Women's Liberation, although it does so using the aesthetic of 1960's music and phraseology, which was, basically, designed by male-dominated hollywood. For everyone who sits in the cheap seats, if you let the flash animation at the beginning of the site load, it plays the entire opening title song for you. Hey, free show!
posted by jscott on Apr 12, 2005 - 27 comments

We're Knights of the Round Table
We dance whene'er we're able.
We do routines and chorus scenes
With footwork impeccable.
We dine well here in Camelot.
We eat ham and jam and Spam a lot.
We're Knights of the Round Table.
Our shows are formidable,
But many times we're given rhymes
That are quite unsingable.
We're opera mad in Camelot.
We sing from the diaphragm a lot.
In war we're tough and able,
Quite indefatigable.
Between our quests we sequin vests and impersonate Clark Gable.
It's a busy life in Camelot.
posted by terrapin on Mar 11, 2005 - 43 comments

The Brill Building , located at 1619 Broadway in the heart of New York's music district, is a name synonymous with an approach to songwriting that changed the course of music. Housing legendary songwriters like Carole King, Jerry Leiber, Neil Sedaka, and Burt Bacharach, the Brill Building created some of the greatest hits of the rock'n'roll era. [more inside]
posted by rocket88 on Dec 29, 2004 - 11 comments

No longer happy and peppy. But still bursting with love, maybe. Broadway will honor the late Tony Randall tonight by dimming its lights at 8PM EDT. For those of us who can't stand pits, pits, pits in our juice, juice, juice, always remember: The world is a circus if you look at it the right way. Every time you pick up a handful of dust, and see not the dust but mystery, a marvel, there in your hand. Every time you stop and think, "I'm alive. And being alive is fantastic." Every time such a thing happens, you are part of the circus of Dr. Lao.
posted by Oriole Adams on May 18, 2004 - 11 comments

The Internet Broadway Database From The Prisoner of Zenda, which opened Sep. 4, 1895, to (well) Urinetown, due to close in January, a comprehensive hyperlinked database of official Broadway performances through the years.
posted by dhartung on Nov 6, 2003 - 10 comments

Silence of the Lambs: The Musical - Featuring the showstopping tune "If I Could Smell Her..." Ummm...you know what? Just click the link.
posted by ColdChef on Jul 18, 2003 - 22 comments

Lord of the Rings...THE MUSICAL. You heard it here first, folks.
posted by adrober on May 28, 2003 - 14 comments

Axing Foreign Acts — Now that immigration control falls under the rubric of Homeland Security [+ | +], ticket sales should pick up for Broadway shows: foreign culture exchange is on the wane down the drain, says the Voice's Don Mattingly this week. Students, too. Bureacratic transition pains or police-state policy? More info? Paranoid surmises?
posted by hairyeyeball on Apr 10, 2003 - 6 comments

Nathan Lane's Successor in "The Producers" Is Fired. (NYT Link). Replacing the hottest Broadway actor in the hottest Broadway musical and getting fired 4 weeks later's gotta suck a lot.
posted by adrober on Apr 15, 2002 - 13 comments

Battle of the Blurbs. The producers of the badly reviewed Broadway show "The Smell of the Kill" have pissed off Times critic Bruce Weber. Good strategy or Bad Karma? Well, at least they didn't make up their own critic.
posted by adrober on Mar 30, 2002 - 3 comments

Madonna to make West End debut. (from Broadway.com)
posted by adrober on Mar 4, 2002 - 5 comments

The Show Must Go On. Is it appropriate for Broadway shows to be up and running again? True, the Mayor prescribed it as a way to show how unaffected we are by terrorism, yet I couldn't imagine sitting in the audience at The Producers, laughing at "Springtime for Hitler," mocking the foolishness of that regime of hatred when the product of another regime of hatred lays smouldering just a few miles to the south.
posted by adrober on Sep 20, 2001 - 16 comments

The Roundabout Theater postpones its Assassins revival. This was probably the right decision, though for those who know the show--and that might not be many--it happens to address better than most things all the issues our country is currently facing. Check out Sondheim.com where they've changed the page to simple text featuring perfectly fitting lyrics for the moment we're in.
posted by adrober on Sep 16, 2001 - 8 comments

``I want to thank Hitler,'' Mr. Brooks said, ``for being such a funny guy on stage.'' I just don't get this. I never got Hogan's Hero's. I never got Life is Beautiful. Comedy riding on the back of atrocity on any terms trivializes the atrocity. How can so many find this acceptable, to say nothing of funny?
posted by ParisParamus on Jun 4, 2001 - 104 comments

John Cullum to star in off-Broadway musical URINETOWN! No comment, other than I like the fact that none of Cullum's tv credits (Northern Exposure, ER) are mentioned in the article.
posted by bjennings on Mar 1, 2001 - 7 comments

Stage musical to be written based on Nike ads...

i think that says it all.
posted by o2b on Nov 13, 2000 - 3 comments

Don't know if this is a sign of the apocalypse, David Hasselhoff is starring as Jekyll and Hyde on the Broadway musical.
posted by tamim on Oct 8, 2000 - 6 comments