Tap dancing porters Quitman Fludd III, Keith Davis, Joseph Wise & Ray Stephens in On the 20th Century (1978). Photo by Martha Swope. The subject of this column last week was the 1932 play Twentieth Century, on which 1978’s On the 20th Century is based. One of my all-time favorite musicals, its superb original production had to be seen to be believed. I was fortunate forty-four years ago to have done so one-and-a-half times; brazenly second acting it on a hot summer night whil

Before there was the glorious musical On the 20th Century in 1978, there was first its source, a Broadway comedy from 1932 simply titled Twentieth Century. It’s the story of a down-on-his-luck producer/director, Oscar Jaffe, who finds himself, after a disastrous opening night of his latest show in Chicago, fleeing from creditors and investors. Sneaking out of town on board the 20th Century Limited, he finds out his biggest discovery (and former flame) is also on the train: Mi

Larry Blyden, Alan Alda and Barbara Harris in "The Lady or the Tiger", Act Two of The Apple Tree (1966). At the close of Friday’s column, I posed a few questions about The Apple Tree (1966) that I promised to answer in this second part, which I will. But I also want to devote the proper space as to why the songs (especially those in the first part of this rare three-part musical) are so special. First, a word or two on the show’s creative team Jerry Bock (music) and Sheldon H

The transcendent Barbara Harris in two guises from The Apple Tree (1966). If you’re as much a fan of original cast recordings as I am, you might find yourself inexplicably humming or singing tunes to yourself (or even out loud) with no rhyme or reason as to why it’s in your head. Yesterday, I had Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock’s magical score to The Apple Tree floating through my brain — which makes today as good a reason as any to report on the history of this one-of-a-kind

Sidney Poitier (with Claudia McNeil) in the Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun (1959). Though most are familiar with his remarkable career, it might come as a surprise that Sidney Poitier had to overcome the handicap as a young man of arriving in America and barely speaking English. In 1943, at age fifteen, his family came to Miami from their native Bahamas. A year later, they moved to New York City where Sidney, after a series of odd jobs and a stint in the Army, dec

The poster for the original Broadway production of Oliver! (1963). Whenever I think about the musical Oliver!, I'm struck by how over the years its exclamation point feels so earned due to its worldwide success. After wowing audiences in 1960 with its tryout in Wimbledon, England, it moved quickly to the West End where it became the longest running British musical with a record-breaking 2,618 performances. American producer David Merrick, then ubiquitous for bringing shows ac

Ruth Gordon (1934). On this date in 1944, a hit comedy opened at the Music Box Theatre titled Over 21. A semi-autobiographical play, it marked the debut of a writer who was already a renowned Broadway and film star: Ruth Gordon. Forty-eight at the time and having already been on the Broadway stage since the age of nineteen, she remarkably still had forty years to go. Only her death at age eighty-eight ended her rich and varied career as a writer and performer (I was fortunate