Broadway is all but shut down. The musician’s strike on Broadway raises two major issues One issue is being discussed; the other is not (or, if it’s being discussed at all, it’s hiding under the coattails of the other). To my mind, the first issue — suggesting that so-called ‘virtual orchestras’ might take the place of live musicians — is a total no-brainer. Who in hell wants
Let me heap some unabashed praise on one of the great performing artists of our time. Barbara Cook, whose evening of songs is being performed at L.A.’s Ahmanson Theatre, continues to be one of the pre-eminent interpreters of American song. This evening of tribute to Stephen Sondheim — in songs written by him and songs, she informs us, that he wishes he had written — is about as pure and simple a per
When I was but a wee sprout, I spent a few years working at a daily newspaper. One of the editors once said to me that if I really wanted to learn about history, I should read the obituaries in the New York Times every day. Today’s New York Times obituaries contain plenty of history – of the New York Times itself, and of the New York theatre scene – in the form of the obituary of caricaturist Al Hir
