Esther Crow as Johnny Guitar illustrates the hazard of rock and roll singing in this rehearsal of my show Beach Blanket Bluebeard, which we’re presenting at Coney Island USA on Decembe…
I endorse nor encourage nothing. I merely state that from 6pm tonight until some time tomorrow (or such time as they are busted), a bevy of renegade theatre folks promise to stage an Occupyi…
Bai Xi, the world famous acrobats of Cirque Shanghai open at the New Victory tonight. The run is through New Year’s. More info can be found here. And here’s a video teaser!
Get it? “Revives” Snow White? Because, she’s — oh, never mind. The Countess and I love the magical Company XIV. I profiled them here a couple of years ago, and review…
Today is the birthday of the much loved Ruth Draper (full bio here). The home movie below doesnt depict the art she’s best loved for (vocal characterizations) but does convey her playf…
Today is the birthday of Broadway star William Gaxton (full bio here). See him in action in this 1945 clip with Beatrice Kay: To find out more about the history of vaudeville, consult…
Today is the birthday of Harry Rose, the Broadway Jester (for a full bio go here). You can see his vaudeville hosting skills in this Fox Movietone, along with the notorious song “Frank…
Pauline Des Landes, a.k.a “Bonita” was born this day in 1886. A dancer from age 12, she began performing in Atlanta and St. Louis before coming to New York to play Koster & B…
I keep wanting to catch the Chinese Opera when it plays Pace University. We’ll probably miss this go-round too, but I share the info with you for your intercultural delectation:
A rehearsal fragment from our upcoming reading of Beach Blanket Bluebeard at Coney Island USA December 8. In this, Esther Crow as Johnny Guitar tells us how to “Shuck the Clam”.
To be my age and a nerd (there, I said it) is to have been a big fan of The Muppet Show during its initial run (1976-1981). Though he is seldom categorized this way, I think Jim Henson ou…
This is part of a little series of post-Thanksgiving mini-posts I'm doing about items you might want to consider as Holiday gifts. Frank Cullen is the author of the indispensable Vaudeville …
Alex Emanuel as Boy-O, rehearsing a snippet of one of the tunes from Beach Blanket Bluebeard (with Sarah Engelke in wig). We do hope you can attend and drink beers with us at the sideshow! G…
Thursday, December 8, please come see a reading of my show Beach Blanket Bluebeard at Coney Island USA! Johnny Guitar’s a way-out cat. A little TOO way-out: it’s pretty obvious h…
Alreet, shet yer yap! Maybe St. Andrew’s Day isn’t near as popular as St. Patrick’s, but somewhere under all this greasepaint there lies a card-carryin’, kilt-wearin&…
I’ll be writing about another version Victor Herbert’s 1903 operetta Babes in Toyland (yes, the Laurel and Hardy version) in a few weeks. Meantime, this version opens at the Bric…
The Three X Sisters were actually The Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce (i.e., Jessie Fordyce) who were later renamed to add glamor and mystery to their radio careers. Pearl Hamilton (1900-1978) …
Lee Morse (born Lena Corinne Taylor on this day in 1897) was a big time vaudeville singer and star of Broadway revues in the 1920s. She was the daughter of a preacher; her four older brother…
Here now, the third installment in our Vaudephone series: the impeccable rock and roll ventriloquist Carla Rhodes and her partner Cecil Sinclair:
An interesting surprise arrived in the mail with my copy of Pood. An outfit known as the Next Issue Project has been reviving comics titles that have fallen into public domain. Their latest …
Pood is my life raft. Oh, not metaphorically — quite literally. The other day I fell off the Staten Island Ferry into the middle of New York harbor…but I simply clung atop my cop…
Today is the birthday of the great Trixie Friganza (for her full bio go here). In honor of the day, we present her rendition of A Girl Named Lula. It seems to me carrying around a cello …
There were several hurdles for The Fartiste to clear before the curtain even went up: 1) I am extremely hard on musicals. It’s not, I finally realized, that I don’t like them, it…