My students at the Boston Conservatory are always looking for new songs to add to their "rep" books: basically three-ring binders filled with sheet music that they use for auditions, singing…
Here's installment number two of my capsule reviews for the 2012 New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF). Click here to read my first set of reviews. Watch for at least one additional insta…
Barrington Stage presents a genuinely thrilling and cathartic production of Arthur Miller's play.
It will probably come as a surprise to many of my readers that I have never been to the New York Musical Theatre Festival(NYMF) before this year. I mean, I've been almost singularly devoted …
During its current season, the York Theatre Company has been featuring what it describes as "classic shows from Off-Broadway." Currently playing at the York is Closer Than Ever, a …
The owner of the North Shore Music Theatre talks about turning around the beloved institution's forces.
We all know about how Jonathan Larson, the author of Rent, died suddenly the night before the show premiered Off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop. It's the stuff of theatrical legen…
Here's my second big-boy review with TheaterMania. This time it's Fiddler on the Roof at the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Mass. Fiddler is easily one of my all-time favorite music…
Barrington Stage Company presents an uneven production of the near-perfect Sheldon Harnick-Jerry Bock musical.
Maybe the Tonys aren't a total sham after all. That was my first thought when I got home Sunday night and saw the results of the 66th Annual Tony Awards. I didn't watch the show live, becaus…
The Independent Theater Bloggers Association (the "ITBA") is proud to announce the 2012 recipients of the Fourth Annual Patrick Lee Theater Blogger Awards, (the "the Patricks"). Patrick Lee …
Regular readers of my blog will likely know two things about me: 1) In selecting shows to see, I tend to stick to the musicals. 2) I teach full-time, and toward the end of each semester, I t…
What if you gathered together some of the most profound thinkers and artists of the 20th century, and then didn't give them anything particularly profound to say? That's pretty much what we …
I have genuinely mixed feelings about "songbook" shows like Crazy for You, My One and Only, High Society, Never Gonna Dance, etc. One the one hand, the fact that all of these songs can be re…
Want to know what's wrong with contemporary musical theater? Then sidle over to the Lunt-Fontanne Theater and catch a performance of Ghost the Musical. Yes, the show is yet another in a long…
The recently ended Broadway season certainly saw its share of musical flops, notably Lysistrata Jones and Bonnie & Clyde. Although each of those shows had its champions, I was not among them…
I've been reviewing musicals and other theatrical productions on this blog for over six years now. For the most part, I've been doing it for the sheer love of theater, and musical theater in…
Louise Pitre gives a vibrant and heartfelt performance in the title role of Goodspeed Musical's revival of the beloved tuner.
A few weeks back, I had a chance to revisit the two musical revivals from last season, and it was a stark study in contrasts. My second visit to How to Succeed in Business Without Really Try…
I hated the movie "Newsies." Hated hated hated it. I found it plodding, forced, cloying, and resolutely earthbound. My roommate at the time, Todd, has a father who's an actor, and his father…
I got a call yesterday from a producer at Marketplace on National Public Radio. She wanted to know what I thought about the impending Tony Award nominations, and specifically what I thought …
How much of a difference can one performer make? That's the question I was left to ponder while walking out of the strangely lifeless revival of Evita that's currently packing them in at the…
The current theater season has provided me with ample opportunities for wistful nostalgia: Godspell, Evita, Follies. These were some of the recordings that I and other show-tune queens of a …
A few weeks back, during spring break at the Boston Conservatory, I took advantage of the brief semester hiatus to hightail it down to New York to see as many shows as possible. (I mean, duh…
When I saw the new musical Once Off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop, I found it disarming and sweet, but I had serious reservations about plans to move the show to Broadway. It's a…