The late, great Stephen Sondheim is best remembered for his boundary-busting musicals brimming with angst and ambivalence. But you would never guess that from the first Broadway show to feature both his music and lyrics, 1962’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Sunny and silly, yet displaying early evidence of Sondheim’s verbal mastery and penchant for … [Read more...]
Something familiar, but fresh: ‘Forum’ to open at Maltz
After begrudgingly writing only the lyrics for his first two Broadway shows — West Side Story and Gypsy — the great Stephen Sondheim at last penned both words and music for 1962’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. A rare musical comedy that is actually funny, it ran 965 performances, a brief run by Phantom of the Opera standards, but it remains the longest run … [Read more...]
Audience-participation whodunit ‘Drood’ takes Maltz stage
Charles Dickens wrote what is probably the most popular holiday tale, A Christmas Carol, which has been adapted for the stage many times, filling theaters at this time of year. A bit perversely, then, the Maltz Jupiter Theatre has chosen to dust off his other Christmas show, 1986’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a five-time Tony Award winner including Best Musical. It opens … [Read more...]