Divamensch

Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street won the 1979 Tony for Best Musical. A big operatic Sondheim musical about a serial murderer and his accomplice who bakes his victims into meat pies. Cut the throat of that Diva and put it on a plate! One of the other nominees was Ballroom, a warm-hearted musical about a middle-aged widow finding her way back into the world through ballroom dancing. A Mensch for sure.

Stephanie just informed me of the death of Sam Neill, age 78. He's best known for Jurassic Park but since I'm not a fan of those movies I looked through his imdb list for something else. I didn't find much of interest, frankly! I liked The Piano at the time but I feel like that movie might not hold up because of the drippy score by Michael Nyman and the now-problematic casting of Harvey Keitel as a Maori dude (with all those fake tattoos). So I'll give you the preview to Jura

I saw Obsession earlier this week - - my friend Lydia encouraged me to see it, it's an indie horror movie that's getting a lot of attention, has broken all kinds of peculiar records. I recently came up with two personal goals when it comes to movies and this one checked both boxes: To see more movies in the theater, rather than streaming at home. To see more movies about which I know very little. A little background on the second point: a couple summers ago I saw the movie *T

There were four shows up for Best Director of a Play in 1978, they fit neatly into pairs: Diva: Dracula, Deathtrap Mensch: The Gin Game, Da Melvin Bernhardt was the winner for Da, a quiet little Irish drama about a man acknowledging the father figures in his life. Total Mensch territory. I bet there were about eight lighting cues in that show.

I just read in the NY Times about the death of Louise Lasser (age 87). I just read her Times obit and what a treasure trove of useful information! It was no surprise that she went to a private school in the Bronx and then Brandeis but I was not expecting to read that she was Barbra Streisand's understudy as Miss Marmelstein in I Can Get It For You Wholesale, the show that catapulted Streisand into semi-stardom. She met Woody Allen on a double date (she was with the other guy)

I've been listening to a lot of Les Paul and Mary Ford lately. Les Paul was a major innovator in two areas: he's one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar. And he was among the first to really go to town with multi-track recording. He said it was a money-saving thing at first - - he didn't want to hire backup singers for his wife Mary Ford so he had her record her own backup vocals and laid them on top of each other. Patti Page was the first artist to hit the big

The 1977 Tonys had another showdown between Julie Harris and Colleen Dewhurst: Diva: Colleen Dewhurst, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Mensch: Julie Harris, The Belle of Amherst Once again Harris was the winner. Don't feel too bad for Dewhurst, she did win two Tonys. Though Harris won FIVE.

Ann Blyth (age 98) was a major Hollywood star in the 40s. She's best known and was nominated for an Oscar for playing Joan Crawford's horrible daughter in Mildred Pierce. Here she is in my favorite scene from that movie: James Burrows (age 85) was a major figure in television. I read two mind-boggling statistics in his New York Times obit: he directed 75 pilot episodes that became series. And he directed 240 of the 275 episodes of Cheers. Other shows that he created: Taxi, Fr

Donna and I saw *Onegin* at American Ballet Theatre on June 23, 2026. I was curious to see it because it's an adaptation of the Pushkin novel *Eugene Onegin* with a score by Tchaikovsky - - I know the Tchaikovsky opera of *Onegin* very well and had just seen it at the Met in April so I was curious to see what the ballet would be like. The surprise is that the score is an assembly of Tchaikovsky (arranged and orchestrated by Kurt-Heinz Stolze) but doesn't appear to feature any

I imagine many of you read my review of the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black concert and thought, "I wonder what their music sounds like." Or maybe even, "I'd love to hear that song 'Underwear Drawer,' it sounds like a real classic!"

Elaine and I saw The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black on June 18, 2026. I ask you: is that one of the greatest band names of all time? Or what. I think I first heard of them in an article in the New York Times on the subject of band names. I’m not sure. Anyway I knew they were a punk band and was always curious about them but not curious enough to actually go to YouTube and check them out. One quick note before I continue - - it's tricky to add a lot of photos to a blog post

The musical Tonys for 1976 were swept away by A Chorus Line. That show has both the Diva and the Mensch embedded in it: Diva: the aura of show biz, flashy song and dance numbers Mensch: the lack of a set or traditional costumes, the desperation and fear under the surface for the characters

I've had this song in my head the last few days, the perfect summer pop song.

Rita Moreno won the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 1976 for The Ritz, playing the insane Googie Gomez. This is a character she had created herself, a Puerto Rican performer who takes herself very seriously and has no idea how hilarious she is. Terrence McNally got wind of this, wrote her into the show, and history was made. Another nominee in that category was Frances Sternhagen as Dora Strang in Equus. She's the central character's mother. Her performance was so

I've fallen behind on my CDAs, my apologies. Here goes: Anthony Head, died at 72. We first saw him on a series of Nescafe commercials but I fell in love with him on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He also had a juicy recurring role on Ted Lasso. Here's a highlight reel of his work on Buffy. Is it time for me to watch that whole series again...? My brother Howard alerted me to the death of David Hockney, age 88. He was one of the most celebrated painters of the second half of the 20

Today I'm doing one of my song-in-review features only instead of different recordings of the same song I'm giving you a progression of the same song. The song is one of the great jazz standards, "Body and Soul," music by Johnny Green and lyrics by Edward Heyman, Robert Sour and Frank Eyton. I was shocked to go to Wikipedia and see that it was written for English actress Gertrude Lawrence, favorite of Noel Coward and creator of Anna in The King and I. Not who I expected to be

I'm branching off in a new direction for the 1974 Tonys. They had four hosts that year for the ceremony and they fit nicely into two pairs: Diva: Florence Henderson and Robert Preston Mensch: Cicely Tyson and Peter Falk I think Henderson and Preston would appreciate being called actors but let's face it, they have more of a show biz razzle dazzle quality than Tyson and Falk, who are serious straight legitimate actors through to their bones. Here's a clip from the opening of t

I had this song stuck in my head on Tuesday morning and thought I'd share it with all y'all. Gerry and the Pacemakers were another band of four guys from Liverpool, also managed by Brian Epstein and produced by George Martin. Like that other group that we all know. This song sounds like a number of early Beatles songs, not particularly distinguished but a well-made pop song. I think part of the reason Gerry and the Pacemakers didn't become the Beatles is that they're not as c

Julie Harris won the 1973 Tony for Best Actress in a Play for The Last of Mrs Lincoln. Who could be less of a diva than Mary Todd Freaking Lincoln? Are you familiar with I'll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers? It's a one-woman play that Bette Midler did on Broadway in 2013, playing Hollywood superagent Sue Mengers. One of Mengers's first clients was Julie Harris. Harris was up for the role of Mary Todd Lincoln in a TV movie and the producers gave her a pass, saying they w

I heard Accord Treble Choir in concert on May 30, 2026. This is my third or fourth time hearing them and the concert was so amazing, I’m hearing every concert they do from now on. It had me asking myself: what is it that makes a great classical music concert? I see three primary elements: the quality of the music chosen, the level of the performance, and that most elusive element, thoughtful programming. Accord scores on all three points. The music had lots of variety, music