By Brian Scott Lipton     March is a month of milestones for two-time Tony Award winner Sutton Foster (“Thoroughly Modern Millie,” “Anything Goes.”). On March 18, the eternally gamine singer-dancer turns 40. On March 31, her new TV series “Younger,”...

  by: Brian Scott Lipton   Ooh la la! The first-ever stage adaptation of the beloved MGM musical “An American in Paris” is getting ready to hit our shores (after a debut last year in Paris), with previews beginning at Broadway’s Palace Theatre on March 13 in advance of an April 12...

        By: Sandi Durell       As I was thinking about how cold it was here (3 deg.), the phone rings and it’s Lani Hall (Mrs. Herb Alpert) calling from Malibu, Ca. where, she says, the weather is just . . . well just, just! More importantly, however, was...

                by: Sandi Durell   January 18th, marked the day that songwriter Ervin Drake (1919-2015) was put to rest after passing away on January 15th. The rains came down in what seemed like endless torrents all day, but the Riverside Funeral...

      Interview by Sherry Amatenstein   It’s not a job for the faint of heart to take on the lead role in Here Lies Loves, the dazzling ‘poperetta’ by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim that offers the audience an aerobic experience along with a unique and dazzling show. Enter Jaygee...

By Brian Scott Lipton Photos/Video: Sandi Durell   Perhaps we truly cannot go “back to before,” but Broadway songwriters Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty saw 30 years pass before their eyes in just a few hours on Monday, November 24 as they were celebrated at the York Theatre Company’s...

      by: Sandi Durell & Magda Katz   “I Am Harvey Milk” – an oratorio written by Tony and Grammy Award Nominee Andrew Lippa in which he and Kristin Chenoweth appeared for a one-night only concert at Avery Fisher Hall, featured Noah Marlowe and the...

    by: Brian Scott Lipton   Strange things can happen when family and friends converge in the country, as we’ve seen in such great works as Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” and Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s “A Little Night Music.” Now, Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies...

  By Sherry Amatenstein         From the opening moments of a telephone interview, playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis has the ability to make a stranger – a reporter! – feel like a trusted friend to whom he can spill his secrets, vulnerabilities and...

  by: Sandi Durell   I’m happy to have found this review and interview I had with Elaine at the Cafe Carlyle and to share it with you! (Sept. 14, 2011) How can an 86 year old veteran actress keep coming up with new surprises? Seems to be unique to this sleek looking leggy...

by: Sandi Durell             There’s a new musical about to open in previews on June 25th, with an official opening night on July 21st – “Piece of My Heart: The Bert Berns Story.” The highly anticipated musical has been brewing for 15...

            Donna Lynne Champlin, Drama Desk and OBIE Award winner, has had a long and successful career as an actor – from “Working: A Musical,” “The Dark At The Top of the Stairs,” “The Dead,” “By Jeeves,”...

        The National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene celebrated 100 years with a series of celebrations – 50 years of Fiddler on the Roof and the 90th birthday of Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning lyricist Sheldon Harnick.  Based upon the stories of Sholem Aleichem,...

          By Sandi Durell   Yes, Barney Miller sings and more! He got his first break in “Bells Are Ringing” on Broadway in 1958 and just kept on going from there, then cast in “Anything Goes” (Billy Crocker), and in 1975 landed the role on ABC TV police comedy...

  A Profile of Fyvush Finkel – World Class Entertainer By: Myra Chanin     Four years ago, Fyvush Finkel once again proved himself a world class entertainer, when he celebrated his 88th and the National Yiddish Theater 96th birthdays with Fyvush Finkel, Live, a one man...

by: Brian Scott Lipton Video and Photo Montage: Sandi Durell   The night they invented champagne will be an extremely memorable one this winter, thanks to the talented cast and creators of “Gigi,” a re-imagined musical version of the classic Colette story, played the Kennedy Center in...

    by: Eric J. Grimm   Few people understand the community of the horror film genre the way New York City based filmmaker Michael Stever does. Stever, a jack of all trades who directs, writes, films, and edits, does plenty of work filming sizzle reels and featurettes for...

  by: Edie Stokes         Joe Franklin was-and is still-called Mr. Nostalgia from his earlier days on radio and TV where he interviewed stage and screen personalities down ‘Memory Lane’. When I spoke with the ‘Master Interviewer’ at his office,...

    By Sherry Amatenstein     He is undisputed theater royalty – the author of  more than 25 plays including the Pulitzer and Tony-winning Doubt: A Parable.  Shanley’s latest, Outside Mullingar, starring Debra Messing and Brian F. O’Byrne, is the first to focus the playwright’s lush...

    Theater Pizzazz feature: The Bridges of Madison County   By Peter Haas   Start with a widely known romance that’s already been a novel and a movie – and has now been adapted for musical theater. How do you bring it to the stage when everyone already knows how it will end?...

      By Myra Chanin     Len Cariou is Broadway Royalty.  He was the successor to Alfred Drake, Broadway’s first Post-WWII Musical Comedy Superstar who between 1943 and 1953 starred in Oklahoma, Kismet and Kiss Me Kate, three upbeat musical megahits with happy endings....

  By Sherry Amatenstein       Our original plan of a doggie play date/interview was foiled when Manhattan was coated with a thin but persistent rain on the appointed Friday. Plan Two sans canines was a koffee klatch in J. Smith-Cameron’s favorite neighborhood java joint....

          Brad graciously took time out for a cyber-sit down with www.theaterpizzazz.com   By Sherry Amatenstein   This season Brad Oscar can be found cavorting onstage at the Neil Simon Theatre delighting audiences as circus impresario Amos Calloway in the...

By Marcina Zaccaria   On October 17, “Pirira” opened at The Chain Theatre in Long Island City, Queens.  The play connects two simultaneous stories, one in Malawi, one in New York.  It explores how our lives are inextricably linked across continents, language, and time. “Pirira” continues...

        By: Sandi Durell   When I spoke with Chris Botti on the phone, he wasn’t sure which event we were going to talk about, because he had just come back from China a day or two before. Chris Botti is acknowledged as one of the greatest trumpet players in the world and...