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No, Oxford’s “Word of the Year” for 2023 is not a nickname for a character in GREASE. But by now, you probably know that “rizz” doesn’t refer to Rizzo. It’s a short way of saying “charisma.” And that brings us to Time magazine’s choice for “Breakthrough of the Year”: Alex Newell, who had plenty of […]

Whether you loved it 42 years ago or sometime after, here’s a way to have even more respect for MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG. Read the original play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. You’ll find that George Furth and Stephen Sondheim greatly improved it. First and undoubtedly least, they renamed the characters. Richard Niles […]

Stephen Sondheim is getting closer to breaking his own record. His 1964 musical ANYONE CAN WHISTLE ran a mere nine performances but has received three cast albums. First, the one with the original cast, then a 1995 concert recording (both of which are on Masterworks Broadway) and a 2020 studio cast recording. No musical that […]

Has this ever happened before? Go to the August Wilson Theatre, and you’ll see the words “The Kit Kat Club” on all three sides of the marquee. Above it is a two-sided sign that says the same thing. Some signs sport the letter “C” with a circle in the space that keeps a “C” from […]

Channel-surfing brought me to a program that started me thinking and made me disagree with what it had to say. It was a first-season episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE called “A Nice Place to Visit.” Small-time crook Rocky is shot while attempting a robbery. When he awakens, he’s surprised that he’s alive. A genial gentleman […]