“Today let's look at an original Stephen King musical. Wait! What’s that? Stephen King wrote a musical? Yes. Yes, he did and with John Mellencamp, no less. It took them close to a dozen years to get it on stage; the end result is entitled The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County. “

Lately, it’s become a theme to change the time-period and/or setting of a popular play/musical. For example, I once saw a post-apocalyptic version of Leonard Bernstein’s Peter Pan, and believe it or not it worked! I personally enjoy seeing popular shows re-imagined, but I believe that there is a time and place to make that dramatic decision.

“How can an art form, which is inherently not socially distant and relies on our ability to connect with one another, survive? Primary Stages, an off-Broadway theatre company established in 1984, has forged the path to tackle this new landscape head-on – with a virtual season.”

It is a reality of our world that bringing creative work to life costs money. The training, whether private lessons or group classes or university studies, can become prohibitively expensive. What do we do when we, as individuals, simply don’t have the money?

“If you’re feeling like making art does not matter in the grand scheme of things, please, please, don’t give up on it. Keep making art. This is your gift, your passion and it needs to be shared, heard and seen.”

“With the “quasi-Tonys” coming later on this fall, I thought it would be a good time to start a new series of columns where we take a look back at some past ceremonies and rethink how the awards were handed out. Let’s a take a look at the 2017 awards.”

“With the emergence and likely continued existence of virtual streamed performances, it’s obviously reasonable for the audience to expect the same quality performance they would receive if there were sitting in the theatre. This means every performer needs to be off-book if the type of performance calls for it.”

With the “quasi-Tonys” coming later on this fall, I thought it would be a good time to start a new series of columns where we take a look back at some past ceremonies and rethink how the awards were handed out. Let’s start with last year’s ceremony.

“Here are my suggestions on how to maximize COVID performing for those days when you just gotta sing, gotta dance!”

“Thanks to the campaign “See Our Truths”, current and former black students are coming forward with their stories of how they had to endure multiple instances of racism during their time in Pace University’s musical theatre program, much of it coming from the head of the MT program, Amy Rogers, and her assistant JV Mercanti.”

“It was announced today that Ben Brantley, the co-chief theatre critic for the New York Times, is stepping down from the position he’s held since 1993.”