\”When I was 14, I saw the first national tour of \’Crazy For You,\’ she said. \”I saw that show and that\’s what made me want to be a dancer. It was the most wonderful thing I\’ve every seen.\”
The characters reveal their stories through a mixture of singing and dancing — with some pantomime thrown in. Hamlisch said that from the beginning the creators felt that certain stories were best told through song, others through dance.
Arts and entertainment briefs.
The documentary, \”ShowBusiness,\” captures the behind-the-curtain drama of the 2003-2004 Broadway season, illustrating the ups and downs the public isn\’t privy to – from blockbusters that shine to \”turkeys\” that crash and burn.
William Finn, composer, lyricist and creator of the hit musical, \”The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,\” says his own surname is the result of a misspelling. \”When my great-uncle came from Russia, he kept saying he was looking for someone named Fein, so the genius at Ellis Island gave him the name Finn,\” he breezily explains from his Manhattan apartment.
Jason Robert Brown began his musical, \”The Last Five Years,\” about a doomed relationship, while in the midst of his own messy divorce seven years ago. Back then, Brown, like the show\’s fictional husband, was a \”young, ambitious Jewish kid from New York\” with a non-Jewish actress wife, he said in a telephone interview from his New York home.\n
The sound and feel of Broadway\’s \”Rent\” are intact, even while the music assumes a slightly edgier rock core, and some dialogue is spoken rather than sung.
Within the first moments of the comedy/drama \”Sunset Park,\” I wanted to get to know Sheila Oaks, who plays widowed mother.
Jerry Herman doesn\’t play favorites with his musicals. Ask him to rank \”Mame,\” \”Hello, Dolly!\” or \”La Cage aux Folles\” and he\’ll tell you, \”I love them all.\”
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