Making Hair On TV Without Chia Pets
NBC has announced that the next musical it will turn into a live television event is "Hair" ("The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical"). The first Broadway show with a rock and roll score, it debuted fifty years ago (after four months off-Broadway), right smack dab in...
Too Much Spamalot
I see that Eric Idle has made a deal to turn his hit Broadway musical “Spamalot” into a movie. It won’t be a filmed version of a stage production, but a revision made specifically for the screen. As much as I loved the show, I wish everyone involved would pause long...
Theater Review: “Born Yesterday”
Stepping into an iconic role is always risky. When the audience knows the original, there are bound to be comparisons. Judy Holliday became a star in 1946 with her powerhouse performance as Billie Dawn in Garson Kanin's "Born Yesterday." She reprised the role in the...
The Stars Of “Faceless”
Last week, I raved about "Faceless," a drama that's playing at The Rep in St. Louis. I liked it so much that I invited its two leads to join me in the studio to talk about it. Susaan Jamshidi plays the prosecutor, Claire, while Lindsay Stock plays Susie, the teenager...
Theater Review: “Faceless”
This is why we go to the theater. My wife and I saw a remarkable production last night. "Faceless" is about Susie Glenn (Lindsay Stock), an 18-year-old white woman from the suburbs of Chicago, who has been arrested for conspiring to commit acts of terrorism. After...
Steven Bach, “Cirque Du Soleil: Crystal”
Here's my conversation with Steven Bach, musical director for Cirque du Soleil's first ice show, "Crystal" (which plays four shows at the Family Arena in St. Charles this weekend). We talked about the difficulty in mounting an acrobatic show on ice, where they put the...
Bob Schieffer, “Overload”
Here's my conversation with Bob Schieffer, longtime CBS news anchor/reporter/analyst, about his new book, "Overload: Finding The Truth In Today's Deluge Of News." Among the questions I asked him: Is our current situation proof that more information doesn’t equal...
Broadway Weekend
I spent the weekend celebrating my mother's 93rd birthday with her, and my wife and daughter in New York City. While there, we took in three Broadway shows of different genres: a feel-good musical about 9/11, a farce where everything goes wrong, and a Noel Coward play...