911 stories by "Michael Riedel"
Few actors went from journeyman to star as fast as Roger Rees did. In September 1981, Rees " who died last week, at 71 " came to New York with...
When I read that James Bond was going to be turned into a musical, my heart sank. I'm a huge fan, but the idea of "Mame" Bond is absurd. Even...
My favorite producer, Garth Drabinsky " that real-life Max Bialystock who defrauded investors of his production company Livent " is out of jail and plotting his comeback. He's acquired the...
I'm a big fan of Tyne Daly's. She was a ferocious Mama Rose in the 1989 revival of "Gypsy," a tough but vulnerable Maria Callas in "Master Class," and she...
Here’s a tip to producers chasing Tony Awards: Don't send earnest letters to Tony voters begging for their support. You look desperate, and voters recoil in disgust. "How many times...
Whenever he had a show that didn't work, Jule Styne shouted, "Next!" Rather than lick his wounds after a flop, he went straight to the piano and started writing a...
Florida has Disney World, but New York has Gangland. The history of the mob in America begins here, at Ellis Island. Between 1899 and 1910, nearly 2 million southern Italians...
Two new Broadway-bound shows had tryouts this week " one openly, the other top-secret. For years, Andrew Lloyd Webber presented staged readings of his latest show in Sydmonton, England, at...
Once again the Tony Awards have made those of us with black, cynical hearts look ridiculous. "Fun Home," a small musical about a teenage lesbian and her secretly gay father,...
An appreciation of musical theater and good fashion sense don't always go hand in hand. I'm pretty snappy with a Jerry Herman tune, but when it comes to clothes, I...
I have an excellent track record when it comes to predicting the Tonys. I picked "Wicked" over "Avenue Q," "Fela!" over "Memphis," "Matilda" over "Kinky Boots" and "Beautiful" over "A...
Here’s the gossip drifting out of Radio City about Sunday night's Tony telecast. First, the bad news: CBS's Les Moonves apparently passed on my idea of saluting Tommy Tune, this...
Helen Mirren is up for a Tony Award on June 7 for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in "The Audience." Mirren won an Oscar wearing the same crown in...
I'm not one to drop a name, but I was at lunch Thursday with Tina Brown (thump) and Helen Mirren (thump, thump) when it occurred to me how glamorous the...
Anne Meara, who died on Saturday at 85, was best known as a comedian, half of Stiller and Meara, her husband being Jerry Stiller. She was also a trained actress,...
Get ready for the Jersey Girls. A jukebox musical about the Shi relles called, naturally, "Baby, It's You" will open in the spring at the Broadhurst. The nostalgia-dripping show is aimed sq…
At the risk of turning this column into the Green Goblin Ga zette, let's have an other go at "Spider- Man, Please Sign My Cast." I've got my foot on its neck, and I'm having too much fun to…
With the success of "Glee," Broadway musicals are a hot subject for television. HBO tried to produce a series called "The Miraculous Year," about a brilliant but nasty composer modeled on S…
The earpiece, used by actors of a certain age who have trouble learning their lines, is so Broadway. For the latest in line-feeding technology, the place to go is off-Broadway, especially P…
Aristotle Onassis was the biggest, baddest Greek this side of Zeus.And now, like many legendary Greeks, he's got a play of his own."Onassis," by Martin Sherman, opened last week in out-of-t…
It's never a good sign when the actors show up for work and find the doors of the theater padlocked shut.But that's what happened Wednesday night to the cast of "The Deep Throat Sex Scandal…
After Hugh Jack man, Broadway's go- to leading man is Harry Connick Jr. He gave a winning performance a few years ago in the revival of "The Pajama Game," and last summer played a sold-out,…
I rest my case.“Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” is no longer an out-of-control curiosity in which somebody might get killed.Now, buried under an avalanche of mostly negative revie…
Linda Lavin knows how to make an en trance. As Silda, a sharp- tongued, recovering alcoholic in Jon Robin Baitz's hit play "Other Desert Cities" at Lincoln Center, she doesn't appear until a…
Broadway lost some great theater people in 2010. I went hunting in The Post's archive for in terviews with some of them. Raise a glass and enjoy. * LENA HORNEIn 1981, her movie and nightclu…
