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Oscar Hammerstein Ii

First Nighter: Soft ...Hardbody, Happy Happy Birthday and It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Not Too Good

David Finkle | Posted 05.22.2013 | Arts
David Finkle

Hands on a Hardbody follows -- with music -- a marathon where the contestant who keeps at least one hand on a truck the longest gets to drive the shiny new vehicle home.

First Nighter: The Woefully Misunderstood Damsels in Distress of Passion and Cinderella

David Finkle | Posted 05.18.2013 | Arts
David Finkle

The correct title for the Sondheim-Lapine opus would be Romantic Obsession, and it wouldn't try to ingratiate itself as a depiction of what genuine love is. Passion is anything but a love story.

Easy Reader: Recommending Michael Feinstein on the Gershwins and Him, Gary Marmorstein on Lorenz Hart

David Finkle | Posted 03.01.2013 | Books
David Finkle

Ostensibly, what Feinstein is offering in his book is, as its title promises, a prolonged glimpse into his life as a devoted George and Ira Gershwin protegƩ.

From Stage to Screen and Then Back Again

George Heymont | Posted 01.14.2013 | Arts
George Heymont

In recent decades, movie musicals that began as full-length animation features and original movie musicals have become multi-million dollar stage vehicles drawing audiences into theatres in cities around the world.

First Nighter: Encores! Series' Pipe Dream Almost a Dream Come True

David Finkle | Posted 05.29.2012 | Entertainment
David Finkle

Of course, when songs so ebullient and/or passionate are this good, who's going to complain? Although a number of the Encores! dust-offs have moved to Broadway, this one certainly won't. Never mind, since it has enough going for it right where it is.

First Nighter: Cy Coleman's Best is Yet to Come is Here Now at 59E59 Theaters

David Finkle | Posted 07.27.2011 | Arts
David Finkle

The best is yet to come? Not this time. It's already here as it deliciously unfolds by way of singers Sally Mayes, Lillias White and Rachel York.

First Nighter: Rodgers & Hammerstein's Stage Fair Much More than Merely Fair

David Finkle | Posted 05.25.2011 | Entertainment
David Finkle

Rodgers and Hammerstein thought they wrote nine Broadway musicals. But there is a tenth that neither of them ever knew about it.

First Nighter: Our Sinatra Revue Is Truly Chairman-of-the-Board-Worthy

David Finkle | Posted 05.25.2011 | Arts
David Finkle

Our Sinatra is a case of songs treated with utterly convincing maturity, depth and, where appropriate, genuine humor.

Let the N.E.A. Lead Them

Dr. Susan Corso | Posted 05.25.2011 | Arts
Dr. Susan Corso

We in the theatre have known for a long, long time that the show must go on. I'd venture to say that there's only one man in Washington who knows this in his bones -- National Endowment for the Arts chair, Rocco Landesman.

The Scottsboro Boys: New Kander-Ebb Musical, Old Kander-Ebb Formula

David Finkle | Posted 05.25.2011 | New York
David Finkle

Time was, audiences went to musicals--more often called musical comedies then--to see famous entertainers sing great songs written by first-rate lyric...

Back in Lady Liberty's Head

Dr. Susan Corso | Posted 11.17.2011 | Healthy Living
Dr. Susan Corso

The real, full name of the Statue of Liberty is "Liberty Enlightening the World." She wears a crown because she's a goddess championing the cause of all causes: freedom.