Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 2001 Like many people of my respectable middle age, I have a personal attachment to Jesus Christ Superstar born of it being a seminal piece of music from my early adolescence. And yet I had never seen the show staged. I was a fourteen-year-old atheist living…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 2001 For reasons best left undisclosed, I have seen the 1982 film version of Victor, Victoria many more times than I should have, but I had not seen the “egregiously overlooked” 1995 stage version until today when I made my first trip of the season down…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 1999 The Mac-Haydn opened their 1999 season with “The Music Man” – a rousing, old-fashioned show about a town learning to believe in itself through outside forces. This was a great success. And I am pleased to say that they are closing the season…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 1999 The only sure thing about the existing version of “Anything Goes” is that Cole Porter wrote the music and lyrics. He didn’t write all of them for the original “Anything Goes” which opened in Broadway in 1934, but he did write them. Beyond…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 1999 “Come on and meetThose dancing feet.On the avenueI’m takin’ you to –42nd street!”– Al Dubin This is it. The Mac-Haydn has pulled out all the stops and come up with an all singing, all dancing extravaganza. Pack up grandma, grandpa and the kiddies…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, July, 1999 “West Side Story” is the only musical on this season’s Mac-Haydn roster not to have won the Tony Award for Best Musical. It lost in 1957 to “The Music Man”, which opened the Mac-Haydn’s 1999 season. Comparing those two shows is like comparing…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June, 1999 Mac-Haydn is off to a good start this season with a second fine musical production – this time Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1950 opus “South Pacific”. Based on a group of shorth stories by James Michener, “South Pacific” was a tremendous hit for Rodgers…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June, 1999 It is very important to note that “My Fair Lady” is a “musical play”. It is not a musical comedy – that uniquely American art form. Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe took the play “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw, added some songs…
