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Quick! Which Rodgers and Hart show enjoyed the longest run in its original production? PAL JOEY? No, that ran 374 performances, and the show we’re looking for clocked in at 427. A CONNECTICUT YANKEE? Close at 418. THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE? Only 235. We’re going backwards. No, R&H — the first R&H, that is — […]

Seeing the excellent current production of JUNO AND THE PAYCOCK at the Irish Repertory Theatre reminded me of the stunning musical version of the Sean O’Casey play. Last month was the sixtieth anniversary of its opening when it didn’t get the money reviews it needed. Don’t let the fact that it closed in two weeks […]

To celebrate The Bard’s 453rd birthday last week, I watched SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE. The 1998 Oscar-winning film shows the world’s greatest playwright struggling to write ROMEO AND ETHEL, THE PIRATE’S DAUGHTER. Of course he eventually turned it into ROMEO AND JULIET, which is still arguably his most popular play. Screenwriters Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman […]

With HIGH BUTTON SHOES about to have a revival at Encores! (May 8-12), Masterworks Broadway is now making the 1947 original cast album digitally available.  In 1946, popular novelist Stephen Longstreet had penned THE SISTERS LIKED THEM HANDSOME, a reminiscence of his own family. On the flyleaf he wrote “I can remember when there had […]

Fifty years ago this week Broadway witnessed an event it never expected – especially considering what had happened only seventy-one days earlier. On Feb. 8, 1969, 1776 began its out-of-town tryout in New Haven to little enthusiasm. On April 20, 1969, it won the Tony Award as Best Musical. The show had been kicking around […]