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Have you ever received a 42-page birthday card? John Kander did in March, when he hit The Big Nine-Five and the “card” arrived in his mail. Quotation marks surround the word “card” because Richard Seff actually sent Kander a little book. He called it COME HEAR THE MUSIC PLAY, which he did with Kander’s music […]

Remember the film 18 AGAIN, in which George Burns’ character goes on a youthful journey? It starts on Jack Watson’s birthday: his 81st, as we see from the foot-high numbers on his commemorative cake. The screenwriters made sure that a straight up-and-down “pole” was its number “1,” for that way, when Jack walked around the […]

So, do you know a novel called GADSBY? Not THE GREAT GATSBY, mind you, but GADSBY, a 50,110-word tome that Ernest Vincent Wright wrote in 1939. It concerned a man who thought his hometown would be better off if children ran it. As flabbergasting as that may sound, the book’s real surprise is that not […]

So what’s inspired me to listen non-stop to GEORGE M!? Inside Broadway gets the credit. If you grew up attending a New York public school, Inside Broadway may be familiar to you. For 40 years, founder and executive director Michael Presser has been sending 45-minute shows to P.S. This-and-That to acquaint kids with what a […]

All right, let’s admit the mistake, apologize for it, and move on. The new vinyl release of RAGTIME says on its spine “Original Soundtrack.” Some will say, “Well, what’s wrong with that?” It’s a common misconception that ANY recording of a musical is a soundtrack. No. Soundtrack albums come from movies, because films have a […]