DC Theatre Scene

Making the Scene: A History of Stage Design and Technology in Europe and the United States

This handsome volume is both an impressive coffee table book with an almost endless progression of illustrations, and an often fascinating text book covering theater design from ancient Greece to modern day. [Read more...]

Consumer safety alert! This disk contains more songs with catchy rhythms that stick in your head than most heads can hold. Listen only when you have time to push repeat repeatedly. [Read more...]

Last May I told you about an “Encyclopedia of Theater” that was interesting but not very useful as a reference work. Well, I’ve found a useful volume to fill the need. In fact, two volumes filled with easy to find entries for the words/titles/names a theatre lover needs to check from time to time. [Read more...]

Frank Wildhorn has a habit of releasing recordings of the songs for his musicals long before the shows open on Broadway. His next foray onto the Great White Way is Wonderland, slated for an April, 2011 opening, but you can hear some of the songs now. [Read more...]

What a beautiful book … literally! With its deep red velvet binding, it is such a good looking package that you hesitate to damage it by opening it. But, as they say you can’t tell a book by its cover, you need to delve into its text to appreciate the job that Andrew Davis has done with this elegant, entertaining and informative history. [Read more...]

One of the chipper-est and most enjoyable revival recordings of recent days makes you happy just listening to its up-tempo, uniquely pop sound. No Broadway musical ever sounded like this before Burt Bacharach and his song writing partner Hal David took a crack at musical comedy. Too bad they didn’t keep at it! It would be great to be able to revive more Bacharach shows (other than revues using his pop songs). [Read more...]

The new, interesting and valuable biography of one of the legendary Broadway flacks is the subject of a press release from its publisher’s own flack headed “Broadway’s last great untold story!” Obviously, Broadway press agents have nothing on publisher’s press agents when it comes to hyperbole. [Read more...]

You can no longer see Angela Lansbury as Madame Arnfeld in the Broadway revival of A Little Night Music, but you can still hear her on the lovely and loving two-disc recording produced by Nonesuch and PS Classics. Beware, however — while Lansbury, who has left the show to be replaced by Elaine Stritch, is a delight on the recording, [Read more...]

Here’s another installment in our “where did the story for that musical come from?” file – DVD division. The musical Chicago was drawn from a real-life story that was first a series of newspaper articles, then a comedy on Broadway, then a silent movie, then a sound movie, and only then, a musical blending the concepts of a vaudeville show with the structure of a book musical. [Read more...]

A group of people exists who love show music like I love show music – and the theatre gods have finally given them the wherewithal to share their love. They work at Masterworks Broadway and they are in the process of filling in blanks in the collections of us fanatics. [Read more...]