Voice Choices
May 1, 2013Michael Musto heats up
54 Below
Blogs
April 23, 2013And it's looking to be even more eye popping and ear stoking than the last one.
It will trot out Elektrik Company, a big band complete with backup singers, all dolled up a la disco fever bunnies.
Me singing disco tunes I remember becaue I learned them when they originally came out!
And my special ... More >>
Blogs
April 3, 2013The last one, in February, was a sold-out hit, so we're bringing on more rhythms, more polyester, and more retro yet totally fresh thump-thump euphoria.
54 Below happens to be the upscale former basement of the old legendary disco Studio 54, and that's the perfect place for me to be hosting the dis ... More >>
Voice Choices
April 3, 2013The Big Knife cuts up Broadway
Blogs
January 25, 2013On Sunday February 17, I'll be singing disco hits at 54 Below--the jazzily renovated lower level of the old Studio 54--and it makes perfect sense.
I used to go to the actual club in the 1970s. And in the 1980s, I fronted a band. And I've written new words to "I Will Survive" to make it a satirical ... More >>
Voice Choices
October 10, 2012Two reasons to visit the public
Voice Choices
August 8, 2012Amy Adams stars in Into the Woods
Blogs
July 20, 2012It was inevitable, people.
I'm going to be gracing a Broadway stage and I'll be positioned right next to Judy Garland herself in the form of Tracie Bennett, who won a Tony nomination for portraying the legend in Peter Quilter's End of the Rainbow.
Blogs
July 10, 2012Hard-bluesing, hard-boozin' wailer Janis Joplin's story has long seemed like a natural for the big screen, but any realization of that has always sputtered out like an empty bottle of Southern Comfort.
Bette Midler did some kind of riff on it in 1979's The Rose, but it was very loosely based.
And ... More >>
Blogs
June 29, 2012There was a lot of hilarious stuff this year--mostly intentional--but the following were easily the funniest "straight play" scenes of all.
(5) In the farcical Don't Dress For Dinner (above), the French cook (Spencer Kayden) had to be turned into a soignee dinner guest, for reasons too silly to me ... More >>
Blogs
May 24, 2012There are more and more of them, all loudly conversing into thin air as they bizarrely breeze past you.
Psychos? Acute schizo nutjobs?
No. You quickly realize that they must be talking into some invisible gizmo or other which actually connects them with another human being. You hope.
Blogs
May 9, 2012This week's column is a breathless triumph that sums up the Broadway season by interviewing various notables at a Tony nominees meet-and-greet where they grabbed at plaques and press ops.
You'll learn:
*What Gladys Knight has to do with the upcoming reimagining of Jekyll & Hyde
*What Bonnie & Cly ... More >>
Blogs
April 25, 2012Next Tuesday morning, the Tony nominations will be announced, and people--even some people not on ropes--will be looking to see if Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is one of the four nominees for Best Musical.
A year ago, that would have seemed as outlandish a proposition as a musical about a flying a ... More >>
Blogs
February 21, 2012It's opening this fall in London, and you can bet it will head to NYC stages, too -- especially since it's a veritable jukebox show into which they've crammed tons of Whitney Houston's hits, fewer than half of which were actually used in The Boydguard movie.
Here are the songs included in the show ... More >>
Voice Choices
January 18, 2012Voice Choices
December 21, 2011Blogs
October 17, 2011The 1971 flower-child musical Godspell--a kooky rendering of the scriptures as a sort of nouveau vaudeville show--has started Broadway previews, and the kids on the boards are spilling about just how the script has been updated and tweaked.
SPOILER ALERT!
Voice Choices
September 28, 2011Blogs
September 20, 2011The Copacabana turned it out last night with food, booze, percussionists, and dancing Copa girls for the gala launch of my book, Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back, promoted by Chip Duckett.
Countess LuAnn de Lesseps and Lisa Lampanelli cohosted and were pure delight, both taking the stage ... More >>
Blogs
June 27, 2011Remember my appearance in the show You Like Me, where I recreated Julie Andrews's immortal speech declining her Tony nomination for the Broadway version of Victor/Victoria?
Well, above is the whole three minute video capturing it in all its breathy elegance.
It's really fun or I wouldn't be sharin ... More >>
Blogs
June 17, 2011Isn't it a theatrical experience unto itself?
And beyond that, Patrick Pacheco (NY 1, L.A. Times), Jesse Green (New York magazine), and I offer sparklingly dramatic and in fact award-worthy comments about last Sunday's Tony Awards telecast, the best one in ages.
Blogs
June 15, 2011The tangled web has sorted itself out and, after only eight years of waiting (or at least it felt that way), Spidey has finally swung his buggin' ass around for the critics--this time officially.
Click here for my review in which I tell you whether the can of repellent is still called for, o ... More >>
Blogs
June 7, 2011So far.
According to guyism.com.
Based on their sex appeal. (Yes, I try to spotlight the other team once in a while.)
(3) Lea Michele
I guess her Tony awards appearance last year is still not instigating waves of glee.
(2) Cameron Diaz
You mean, her reuniting with ex beau Justin Timb ... More >>
Blogs
May 25, 2011In the current Broadway revival of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, Ellen Barkin is doing so well she's gotten a Tony nomination and a theaterful full of used Kleenexes every night.
Click here for my new column, in which Ellen tells me about this staggering production, as well as her experie ... More >>
Blogs
May 3, 2011Last year, the Tony awards fawned over Hollywood types, and a lot of died-in-the-wool theater people didn't have much of a chance against them.
Well, this time the nominating committee obviously listened to the criticism about all that and swung the curve back to the real theater stars.
(He ... More >>
Voice Choices
March 30, 2011What would you do for love?
Voice Choices
March 9, 2011Chris Rock makes his Broadway debut
Voice Choices
January 26, 2011Blogs
November 4, 2010...Is that I don't have to see every single show anymore!
I was so conscientious as a voter that I would sit there and watch everything that crept down the turnpike just on the off chance that it might end up getting a nomination or two.
Blogs
October 14, 2010I recently relayed lemonwade.com's breaking news about Tony winner Donna Murphy's participation in a show dealing with Holocaust victims and survivors, which is on its merry way to Broadway.
Well, apparently, it's a musical comedy!
I've linked the new lemonwade report, which tells you some ... More >>
Voice Choices
October 13, 2010Julia Stiles bites the pomegranate
Voice Choices
October 13, 2010Blogs
September 23, 2010Two-time Tony winner Donna Murphy is returning to Broadway in a musical about the survivors and victims of the holocaust, according to our friends at lemonwade.com.
While the Broadway board regulars will no doubt start making cracks like, "Will she show up for the holocaust?" I'll be anxious ... More >>
Blogs
September 8, 2010
Broadway baby Seth Rudetsky just interviewed me on his Chatterbox show on BroadwayWorld.com and got to the root of:
*The first Broadway show I ever saw, which absolutely horrified me.
*My first interview with a Tony winner, who totally traumatized me.
Blogs
June 16, 2010CLICK HERE for my column in which the veteran funny lady tells me if she's ever had a lesbian experience and also if she's ever dated a man who turned out to be gay.
Well, I asked!
I also dish about:
Blogs
March 26, 2010via WikipediaLast year, a batch of press people were told they could no longer vote for Broadway's Tony awards--this even though we're the only voters who didn't have a conflict of interest, seeing as we don't work for any of the shows!
Well, we all carried on and screamed like highly litera ... More >>
Voice Choices
March 16, 2010Voice Choices
November 24, 2009Voice Choices
October 13, 2009Voice Choices
October 13, 2009Blogs
July 17, 2009The Tony Management Committee has stopped letting critics vote on the Tony Awards for achievements in Broadway theater, on the grounds that the reviewers have a conflict of interest -- as opposed to actual theater artists and producers who, we guess, monkishly abstain from allowing personal relation ... More >>
Blogs
June 10, 2009That desperate headline was the only way I could draw your attention to my column (CLICK HERE) reviewing Debbie Reynolds, who was Hollywood's original girl-next-door-who's-man-left-her-for-a-vamp, way back in the '50s.
Anyway, Debbie debuted at the Cafe Carlysle last week with a fun act of singing, ... More >>
Blogs
June 8, 2009
The Tony Awards producers did not take our suggestions, but the show still moved at a relatively brisk pace and had some nice moments, such as the acceptance of the Best Actor in a Musical Award by the three nice young men who alternate the lead in Billy Elliot; they were physically poised as you ... More >>
Blogs
June 5, 2009Another year, another unwatched Tony Awards show. Let's face it: this Sunday's prize party isn't even getting you excited, is it? Sure, the Tonys provide the MDR of greasepaint 'n' glamour we learned to love as lonely, introverted children. But as a quick look back at, say, the justly famous 25th An ... More >>
Voice Choices
February 25, 2009Voice Choices
September 3, 2008See Harry and his broomstick on Broadway
Voice Choices
July 29, 2008Classical Theatre of Harlem moves its hit show outdoors
Voice Choices
February 19, 2008Great casting may make this one soar
NYC Life
January 4, 2005Columns
May 18, 1999Advice from the ball circuit: 'This category is about your face, not your booty. Now ride your broomstick out of here, baby gorilla.'
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