Beck Lee is a New York-based writer, producer and promoter who in 1996 founded Media Blitz, a public relations and marketing firm for film, theatre and music. He's been described as "something of a marketing genius" by NPR's "On the Media" which means that if you're involved in presenting some...

If life were fair, Eric Michael Gillett would be a Broadway or Metropolitan Opera superstar choosing between the kinds of roles formerly offered to Alfred Drake, Robert Preston, John Raitt, or, more recently, Michael Crawford, before he turned into a 350-pound canary. But life is not just, which just may...

Before I reveal all 10,003 degrees of separation between Sondheim and me, let me assure you that it's all in the timing, which also happens to be the title of David Ives' first hit show, originally staged 20 years ago by Primary Stages for Off-to-On-Broadway 603 performances. It's now enjoying...

Len Cariou may well be the most persistently employed performer on the planet. Just printing his credits takes up a half ream of multipurpose paper. Len leaps fleetly from role to role, format to format and venue to venue -- theater, film, television, recordings, narration, voiceovers, documentaries and audio books....

When I was growing up in-what-seems-like-2004-but-was-actually-the-1930s, calling America THE GOLDEN LAND!!!! was an understatement. To us, America was the mother of all paradises: the Garden of Eden before the appearance of the snake.

My mother's family arrived in Philadelphia together, and -- with the exception of...

What artistic endeavors do Martin Scorsese and Chuck Prentiss seem to share?

Transforming the spirit of Eddie Cantor, a star of vaudeville, Broadway, film, radio and records from 1916 to 1960 into living, breathing, singing, hand-clapping, toe-tapping, eye-rolling 2012 flesh.

Scorsese features Stephen DeRosa as Eddie Cantor in...

Lenny Leibowitz, Marvell Rep's Marvellous [sic] Artistic Director/Co-Founder is a born-and-bred-around Philadelphian whose bold, City of Brotherly Love beginnings are attracting attention in the location stolen by sharp traders from the original natives with bright colored beads. So what else is new?

A nice suburban lad, Lenny spent his...

Comedy is always weird but can be wonderful when a) the funny person highlights the same flaws you also noticed but never actually revealed.

Musical theater is also weird but also can be wonderful, especially when b) you leave a performance humming a memorable tune.

Reconciling a and b...

Hip, Hip, Hurrah for Scott Siegel's Broadway Ballyhoo, the hour-long Musical Revue that's brand new every Thursday night at 11 p.m. at Feinstein's at Loew's Regency. Scott's the taller half of the husband/wife writing/producing/hosting team known as Siegal Entertainment, who have presented many events that give Broadway stars the time...

If you ever want to put your significant other in the mood for love, try playing any tune on Joe Alterman's new CD, particularly one where Joe and his mentor Houston Person jam and groove. Everybody knows or should know who Houston Person is. He's the legendary Soul Jazzman known...

Almost every sentence written about Simon Lovell should have the word "allegedly" liberally sprinkled around it. In real life, Simon is an allegedly former, allegedly reformed, alleged con man, who allegedly saw the error of his ways, allegedly stopped performing actions that hurt other people and has now stumbled into...

I used to think that only two people were crazy enough to work full time at keeping Yiddish alive. Who were they? The first is Zalman Mlotek, the Artistic Director and Guiding Light of the National Yiddish Theater - Folksbiene, who continues producing/directing/finding funding, etc. for Yiddish plays like The...

Almost every time I encounter a really talented New Yorker, I find that he/she/it/they are Philadelphia natives. A prime example? Michael Ogborn, the composer/lyricist/playwright of Baby Case, the exciting musical drama about the 1932 tragic kidnapping of the 20-month-old firstborn son of Charles A. Lindbergh, the Lone Eagle who made...

At the ripe age of either 98 (per Wikipedia) or 100 (per his faded driver's license), Professor Irwin Corey, "The World's Foremost Authority," is still a man of many words, usually multisyllabic and unintelligible. No other comedian is so eloquent in his use of vocabulary and so incoherent...

Joey Reynolds, long time national late night radio talk show host, often said that I would go to the opening of an envelope. He was mistaken. I would only go to the opening of an envelope if the paper was 50% linen. He actually meant that I had a propensity...

Ben Vereen's legendary career transcends time, tribulations and media. An international entertainment icon, Ben's first love will always be performing live on stage, despite the awards he's received for his work in films, on TV, or you name it and he's been a force in it. Ben is a cultural...

When most people, including myself, think opera, they envision a portly lady singing/dying in a massive theatrical venue with most seats too far away from the stage to see and hear unassisted by binoculars and "secret" sound amplification. For a splendid, intimate alternative to this, meet the DiCapo Opera Company.

It's hard to believe that Brian d'Arcy James isn't triplets. This artistic whirlwind-cum-theatrical chameleon -- multi-talented, versatile, adaptable, adventurous and resourceful America actor, musician and voice-over artist -- is one of those few blessed, super-gifted performers who persistently finds interesting work, gets great reviews and words-that-end-with-Y nominations and awards. He's...

The Victorians would have called Jackie Hoffman an Original and rightly so. Her unflinching outsider insights highlight everyone's foibles, especially her own. Jackie has worked her way up to stardom the hard way -- by persistently and insistently being herself. When I told her I think she is the funniest...

Publishers Clearing House was founded in 1953 by Harold, LuEsther and Joyce Mertz, during a time when magazines were sold individually by door to door salesman or via a publishers' own direct mail efforts. Harold Mertz thought offering consumers a choice of many magazines at the same time would increase...