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Category Archives: Reference
Essential Musicals: Hamilton
Once in a generation, a musical comes along that resets the theatrical atmosphere and perhaps enters the wider popular culture. Hamilton is such a show — as Show Boat was in the 1920s, Oklahoma! in the 1940s, Hair in the … Continue reading
Essential Musicals: Sweeney Todd
“Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd. He served a dark and a vengeful god.” With that, the title character introduces himself and prepares us for a macabre musical about obsession, revenge — and cannibalism. Composer Stephen Sondheim has called Sweeney … Continue reading
Posted in History
Tagged Ahrens & Flaherty, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Evita, Harold Prince, Hugh Wheeler, Ragtime, Stephen Sondheim, Sweeney Todd, Terrence McNally, Tim Rice
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Essential Musicals: A Chorus Line
At an audition, 18 dancers vie for eight openings in the chorus line of an upcoming musical. The director invites them to step forward, one by one, and tell him something true about themselves. And they do. That’s the simple … Continue reading
Essential Musicals: Fiddler on the Roof
Novelist Philip Roth called it “shtetl kitsch,” and writer Cynthia Ozick said it was an “emptied-out, prettified romantic vulgarization” of Sholem Aleichem’s work. Even if it wasn’t entirely true to its source material, Fiddler on the Roof did tackle the … Continue reading
Essential Musicals: The Fantasticks
As the size (and cost) of Broadway productions began to grow in the 1950s, several theater-makers left Times Square and settled in Greenwich Village, fashioning intimate playhouses out of bars, brownstones, and abandoned cinemas. By 1954, the Off-Broadway movement had … Continue reading
Essential Musicals: Gypsy
New York Times critic Ben Brantley believes Gypsy “may be the greatest of all American musicals.” He is not alone. Previous Times critic Frank Rich considers the show to be “Broadway’s own brassy, unlikely answer to King Lear.” The Lear … Continue reading
Essential Musicals: West Side Story
When West Side Story premiered in 1957, it marked a turning point in American musical theater — “a provocative and artful blend of music, dance, and plot,” as one critic noted — but getting the work to Broadway had not … Continue reading
Essential Musicals: Guys and Dolls
From the Mississippi River banks to the Oklahoma plains, and beyond, the best musicals effectively evoke their settings. Guys and Dolls was the first (and so far best) Broadway musical to bring Broadway to life — not the Broadway of … Continue reading
Posted in History
Tagged Abe Burrows, Adler & Ross, Cole Porter, Cy Feuer, Damon Runyon, Frank Loesser, Guys and Dolls, Kiss Me Kate, Sam Levene, Stubby Kaye, The Pajama Game, Vivian Blaine
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