Not Appearing Tonight...
This one's about an actor named Brad Oscar. When this article was first published, he was playing the Nazi playwright in The
Producers on Broadway and understudying the lead. Eventually, Brad took over the lead role, replacing Nathan Lane as Max Bialystock.
It's a wonderful story because that kind of thing does not usually happen to...
A Little Brains, A Little Talent...
"A little talent?" Not on your life. Gwen Verdon was as talented as anyone who ever put a tap shoe on the Broadway
stage. When the lovely Ms. Verdon left us, I heard from a lot of folks who thought she was a genuine class act. Many folks were saddened
by the passing of...
Make Them Hear You (Schmock! Schmock!)
I saw Ragtime in L.A. at the Shubert Theater — technically, a suburb of Broadway — and found it thrilling.
Equally thrilling was who I found in the seat next to me. (By the way: You'll notice in this article, a firm prediction that Brian Stokes
Mitchell would win the Tony for his performance in the show. He didn't...but he should have.) Anyway, we're calling this column...
Moonshine In Manhattan
In 1959, Al Capp's Dogpatch denizens turned up singing and dancing on the Great White Way and, only a few years later, in a movie based
on that show and featuring most of the Broadway cast. The first article linked below is about the Broadway musical and the second is about the
movie. (These pieces originally appeared as forewords in the Kitchen Sink volumes that reprinted the newspaper strip but have been slightly
revised for this website.)
|