What would you expect when fans have been known to refer to their favorite composer and lyricist (who wrote a song about it) as God? The Sondheimas Mixtape at the Public Theater in Manhattan on March 20, 2017, was an Advent calendar of treats two nights before Stephen Sondheim’s 87th birthday. A dozen or so soloists, […]
Read MoreHave Your Pie and Eat It, Too
In New York City, the Barrow Street Theatre production of Sweeney Todd (running until at least Dec. 31, 2017) truly extends beyond the normalcy of the fourth wall. More than an immersive experience — cozying theatergoers in Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop next to the Demon Barber himself — the audience gets fed, too. Luckily […]
Read MoreA Work of Art: Sunday in the Park at Boston’s Huntington Theater
Color and light, tension and harmony. These design elements should be fundamental to any stage production, but perhaps none more than Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George. In Peter DuBois’s production at the Huntington Theater in Boston (Sept. 9-Oct. 16, 2016), the designers addressed another of the show’s themes: making an artist’s vision […]
Read MoreBoris Aronson: Vision and Execution
In an extraordinary six-year period, Stephen Sondheim and Harold Prince brought four landmark musicals to Broadway: Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973) and Pacific Overtures (1976). All four iconic productions of these remarkably disparate shows featured scenic designs by the same man: Boris Aronson. A son of the Grand Rabbi of Kiev, […]
Read MoreGift That Keeps On Giving: Jim Walton talks about Merrily’s original production
At the age of 25, Jim Walton originated the role of Franklin Shepard in Merrily We Roll Along on Broadway. Walton talks about the highs and lows of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that came his way after being a New York actor for only two years. Walton has gone on to appear in any number […]
Read MoreOpera or Musical? Sondheim made Sweeney to scare an audience
The big revelation instantly splashed across the media was that Stephen Sondheim’s new musical is to have its premiere Off Broadway at the Public Theater in late 2017 — “ if I can finish the score in time.” But in an onstage conversation at Glimmerglass Opera on July 30, Sondheim made what may be an […]
Read MoreJohn McMartin, Follies’ Original Benjamin Stone, Dead at 86
John McMartin, an actor with a flair for patrician roles, died on July 6, 2016. According to the New York Times, the cause was cancer. He was 86. McMartin, whose stage career began in 1959 with an appearance in Little Miss Sunshine off-Broadway, scored one of his biggest career successes a dozen years later […]
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