From the blurb on the back of its plastic VHS tape box: “A busload of fun-loving high school seniors is on its way to New York City — so watch out New York! The venerable Mickey Rooney and teenage heartthrob Scott Baio star in this freewheeling adventure that this senior class — and New York City — will not soon forget.” Image of the VHS cassette of Senior Trip (1981). Heads up: this column isn’t about a piece of theatre, although being in an off-Broadway play that ran only a

By Ron Fassler Andrea McCardle and Sandy in a publicity photo from “Annie” (1977). When we left off yesterday at Part One (I guess I can try and make this into a cliffhanger like the comic strip on which it was based), the creatives behind Annie were getting ready to regroup and recast for a move to Broadway. Would a musical set in the Depression Era 1930s and based on fifty-year-old cartoon characters speak to an audience in post-Watergate America 1977? Would a song like "To

By Ron Fassler Andrea McArdle (Annie), Reid Shelton (Oliver Warbucks) and Sandy (Sandy) in Annie (1977). Photo by Martha Swope. As the 1976–77 Tony Award season drew to a close, the gossip on the Rialto was that it might mark the first year there would be no nominees for Best Musical. As in zero; nada. Due to a series of circumstances, only one eligible show had opened. Music Is, yet another adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, had been panned by five of the six major n

By Ron Fassler Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick as The Producers (2001). It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around it being twenty years ago tonight that The Producers opened at the St. James Theatre. At the time, I was a mere child of forty-four, as was my old friend and ally Nathan Lane, then a strikingly young forty-five. ☺️ Significantly, not only is that original production still fresh in my mind, but so is the imprint on my funny bone of how uproariously hilarious a musi

Chita Rivera and Dick Van Dyke singing and dancing “Rosie” in Bye Bye Birdie (1960). The original Broadway production of Bye Bye Birdie is sixty-one today. Brash and youthful, it’s hard to imagine what its impact was back in 1960; the first musical to incorporate elements of rock and roll into a traditional Broadway score. In lieu of a time machine, here’s a look back at how it even got to Broadway in this edition of “Theatre Yesterday and Today.” Producer Edward Padula was w

John Cullum: An Accidental Life (2021). Photo by Carol Rosegg. When I wrote in March about the legendary musical theatre star John Cullum on the occasion of his ninety-first birthday, I had no idea he would return to the stage a month later. Now, thanks to streaming, he is back where he belongs (happy to report) in all his glory. My review in today’s “Theatre Yesterday and Today.” The first thing heard at the start of John Cullum: An Accidental Star are the opening notes of B

An entirely personal take by one teenager’s visit to the landmark musical Follies the day before it opened — fifty years ago today. The original cast of "Beautiful Girls" from Follies (1971) with the inevitable Roscoe (Michael Bartlett). Photo by Martha Swope. I think it’s fair to state that Follies is the most discussed Broadway musical of all time. Ever since it premiered in 1971, there has been a pronounced inability to agree over whether it succeeded at what it so boldly