Stephen Sondheim (photo by Fred Conrad, New York Times). “Sometimes people leave you halfway through the wood.” Now that he’s gone, no one can say Stephen Joshua Sondheim (1930–2021) met us only halfway. With a career rich in longevity and creativity, his death at age ninety-one the day after Thanksgiving has left us mortals bereft. Not kidding about that, as the question of whether or not the man was a God was no joke. In his 2011 book Look, I Made a Hat, he tells a story re

Here’s a question many Broadway aficionados won’t be able to answer. In 1946, when “Oklahoma!” became the longest running musical in Broadway history, it broke the 25-year record of what musical? The answer: the musical Irene, which opened 102 years ago tonight. At 675 performances (just shy of two years), it held that record of distinction for twenty-five years until Oklahoma! came along and smashed it. That’s right, for more than a quarter century no musical ran longer than

Burgess Meredith in a publicity still from 1939. On this date in 1907, Burgess Meredith was born — “Buzz” to all who knew him.* An actor with a ubiquitous presence throughout my childhood, anyone who grew up in the mid-1960s can easily imitate the “quack, quack, quack” he came up with for the villainous Penguin on Batman. Especially Jon Stewart, who brought it back for The Daily Show to use for his Dick Cheney impression. Meredith could use that sandpapery voice of his to pla

Forty years ago today, the above ad appeared in the New York Times “Arts and Leisure” on November 15, 1981. There was also a front-page article in that section about the tumultuous preview period for this new Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical based on a 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, budgeted at $1.5 million (yes, you read that right). The article, titled “More Changes Than I Was Used To,” is a quote from the show’s director, Harold Prince, who suffered mig

Pearl Bailey descending the staircase in Hello, Dolly! (1967). Photo by Friedman-Abeles. Hello, Dolly! opened in 1964 to rave reviews, a then-record-breaking ten Tony Awards (out of eleven nominations) and sold-out houses. After its first Dolly, Carol Channing, completed a two-year run, she took it out on a national tour, succeeded on Broadway by fading, but still vibrant stars of stage and screen like Ginger Rogers, Martha Raye and Betty Grable — nostalgic choices that helpe

George M. Cohan as President Franklin Roosevelt in I’d Rather be Right (1937). Even after all these years, whenever I watch James Cagney as George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (usually on July 4th when it airs annually on Turner Classic Movies ), it’s always startling when late in the film he sings and dances while playing Franklin Roosevelt. As part of the biography the film depicts, it shows Cohan in the Broadway production of the Richard Rodgers & Larry Hart/George S. K

“He loved theatre more than anyone I’ve ever met. As I’ve often said, he was like the love child of a wild night between Noël Coward and the Lunts.” – Nathan Lane Fittingly, the first memorial to be held in a Broadway theatre upon its reopening after the pandemic shutdown was for the playwright Terrence McNally, who died of Covid-19 in March of last year. The inability to properly mourn this five-time Tony Award recipient has weighed heavily on the Broadway community these pa