Classical Music

Here is a story, embarrassing but funny in an ironic sort of way. Arriving in Manhattan in March 2016 to see an opera at the Met, I spotted, in Port Authority, a poster for Hamilton. Instantly, I thought—now, bear in mind that I knew absolutely nothing about the show and had never even heard of it—“A musical about Alexander Hamilton. That will never be a hit!”

I was laughably ignorant of the fact that Lin-Manuel

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The Tap Dance Kid. Book by Charles Blackwell; Music by Henry Krieger; Lyrics by Robert Lorick. With Jimmy Tate (Willie); Martine Allard (Emma); Hinton Battle (Dipsey); Samuel E. Wright (William); Gail Nelson (Ginnie); Jackie Lowe (Carole); Alan Weeks (Daddy Bates). Polydor Records, 1984.

In 1974, the late, Tennessee-born author Louise Fitzhugh wrote a novel for adolescents called Nobody’s Family Is Going to Change. In 1980, the novel became a thirty-minute film called The Tap

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Any serious fan of Broadway musicals has no doubt heard that the three greatest overtures are those for Gypsy, Funny Girl, and Candide. It is true that these overtures are all uncommonly creative in their blending of melodies from the respective shows’ scores, though I half-suspect the Candide one is “the greatest” mainly because Leonard Bernstein wrote it. De rigeur for Broadway musicals since the 1920’s at least, the overture fell somewhat out of fashion from the 1960’s onward; Charles

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Golden Boy. Book by Clifford Odets and William Gibson; Music by Charles Strouse; Lyrics by Lee Adams. With Sammy Davis, Jr. (Joe Wellington); Paula Wayne (Lorna Moon); Billy Daniels (Eddie Satin); Kenneth Tobey (Tom Moody); Johnny Brown (Ronnie); Terrin Miles (Terry); Lola Falana (Lola). Capitol Records, 1964.

When it comes to Broadway musicals, there are hits, there are flops, and there are hits

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Birgit Nilsson as Elektra, 1960's

Elektra and Carrie

In April 1988 the musical version of Stephen King’s Carrie began a chaotic series of previews at Broadway’s Virginia Theatre; the show never opened officially and for years was best remembered from author Ken Mendelbaum’s descriptions of it in his funny, insightful study of failed Broadway musicals, Not Since Carrie (1991). According to Mendelbaum,

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