With today marking the anniversary of the opening of Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway, fifty-seven years ago, I thought I would share this excerpt from Up in the Cheap Seats: A Historical Memoir of Broadway, which explains only a portion of why this musical will always hold a special place in my heart: Tom Morrow’s original poster design for Fiddler on the Roof (1964). My Great-Aunt Helen introduced me to the lights of Broadway when, in 1967, she took me to see my first Broadw

Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Mike Nichols the night of September 19, 2004 with their Angels Emmys. The Emmys are tonight, and though generally the least entertaining of awards show broadcasts (WAY too many categories), I always tune in with the hope of hearing a great speech from an actor or actress. And, if they happen to be a stage veteran, then the odds of seeing something memorable increase tangentially. For a few years, I had a close view of it all when I used to attend t

Inês Herédia (Roxie), Miguel Paposo (Billy) and Vanessa Silva (Velma) in the Teatro da Trindade production of Chicago (2021). While visiting Lisbon, Portugal this week and last, my Portuguese companion wanted to know if there were any shows I would like to see. He informed me it’s a city (even in these Covid-infested times) with many old theatres I should investigate. Naturally, all the plays would be in Portuguese, of which I speak very little (if any at all), but a musical

The 1985 DVD of the two-night only Follies in Concert. It was thirty-six years ago tonight that I (along with about 2,700 others) attended the first of two sold-out performances of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s Follies in Concert atLincoln Center. With no hard evidence to back it up, I would stake that an overwhelming majority had seen the original production sometime during the fifteen months it ran on Broadway between 1971 and 1972. And if this wasn’t our chance to s

Geraldine Page (1924-1987). “Way back in stock [theatre], when I was in my 20s, I played Come Back Little Sheba and I was talking to somebody about how fun it was to play older parts and they were looking at me like, ‘What are you talking about?’ They thought I was really that old.” That story from the superb actress Geraldine Page neatly sums up the sort of roles she played in her forty-year career — mature, eccentric, and often downright peculiar women. “They did cast me as