Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals

Reviews - Side Show, Elephant Man, Plus the Best and Worst Musicals of 2014

Regular readers with note that most of my posts lately have been lists of links to my About.com posts. When I took on the About.com gig, I thought that I would be migrating some of my more evergreen posts to theater.about.com, which is the page that I now produce for About.com. My goal was to keep posting my reviews to this blog. 

Well, then the semester kicked in at the Boston Conservatory, as well as the obligation to generate two posts per week for About.com. So it turned out I needed every available story idea to meet my quota. My hope is that, as I settle into a groove, that I'll be able to find a bit more balance between the blog and About.com. 

That said, here are my most recent posts for About.com, including my reviews of Side Show and The Elephant Man, as well as my lists of the best and worst musicals of 2014:  

Review - Side Show Revival on Broadway 

Review - The Elephant Man With Bradley Cooper

The Best Musicals of 2014

The Worst Musicals of 2014

In any case, thanks for reading, and let me know if there's anything that you'd liek to see me cover, either here on the blog, or for About.com.  

Reviews - On the Town, Curious Incident, The Band Wagon and More

So, the combination of yet another busy semester at The Boston Conservatory and my contract with About.com to supply them with two posts a week has meant that I haven't had any time to post here on EIKILFM. (The Conservatory and About.com both pay me for my services. This blog, alas, does not.) 

But I have been keeping up with reviews of the major musicals, and many of the plays, that have opened in New York City this fall. It's just that I've been posting them on About.com. Here are the links to those reviews: 

Review - On the Town Revival on Broadway 

Reviews - Show Boat, Allegro, and The Band Wagon

Review Roundup - Curious Incident, It's Only a Play, and You Can't Take It WIth You

Review Roundup - Found, The Fortress of Solitude, and Bedbugs

As you can see, It's been a busy fall for theatergoing. And it's not over yet: still to come are my reviews of the revivals of The Elephant Man and Side Show. 

Happy holidays, y'all.

Related articles

Review - The Last Ship on Broadway

Review - The Phantom of the Opera With Norm Lewis and Sierra Boggess

10 Musicals That Changed Broadway - And Other Posts

Review - The Last Ship on Broadway

The fall theater season in New York is is full swing. I'll be publishing a series of reviews over the next few weeks, some of them here on the blog, and some of them over on About.com. Here's my most recent review, which is abotu the new Sting musical The Last Ship, which opened this week on Broadway. Does the show hold water? Has that ship sailed? Will the boating puns ever cease? Click through and find out: 

Review - The Last Ship with Music and Lyrics by Sting 

Also, here's a sampling of my recent postings on About.com: 

The Best Musicals for Halloween...Don't Exist

7 Unlikely Stars of Broadway Musicals 

The Most Common Theater Configurations 

Musical Theater Terms You Probably Don't Know 

Anything you'd like to see me cover for About.com, or here on the blog? Shoot me a line. 

10 Musicals That Changed Broadway - And Other Posts

So, the new semester at The Boston Conservatory has officially begun. Now I get to see how well I'm going to be able to keep up with my posts on About.com, my reviews of the new Broadway and Off-Broadway seasons, and the inevitable mountain of papers to grade. Stay tuned. 

Here are my most recent posts for About.com. They've proven very popular on the site, particularly the ones on classic musicals and musicals that changed Broadway. Let me know what you think. 

Why Do Broadway Shows Close?

7 Classic Musicals That Were Box-Office Flops

Student Rush, Ticket Lotteries, and Standing Room 

10 Musicals That Changed Broadway 

 

 

 

Review - The Phantom of the Opera With Norm Lewis and Sierra Boggess

As I mentioned a while back, I picked up a new gig writing for About.com as the Musical and Theater Expert. I was hoping that the gig wouldn't interfere with my blogging, and so far that has actually been the case. As to whether this will continue as the school year starts up, well, stay tuned. 

I'll still be publishing most of my reviews here on my blog, while at About.com I'll be posting more evergreen stuff about theatergoing in general. One review that I decided to post on About.com was for my recent revisit to The Phantom of the Opera with its new stars, Norm Lewis and Sierra Boggess. Here's a link to that review, as well as to the rest of my About.com postings for August. 

Review - The Phantom of the Opera With Norm Lewis and Sierra Boggess

5 Myths About Musicals

Attending a Broadway Show - Dos and Don'ts 

Broadway? Off-Broadway? What's the Difference? 

Upcoming New Broadway Musicals - Fall 2014

Upcoming Musical Revivals on Broadway - Summer 2014 

Questions to Ask as You Write Your Musical

Dynamic Pricing for Broadway Tickets 

Cast Recordings, Broadway Grosses, What to See, What to Buy

Hey, folks. 

Here are my latest posts for About.com. Lots of fun info here regarding what to see on Broadway this summer, which recent cast recordings to buy, whether you spell in "theater" or "theatre", and how to read the Broadway grosses. (Well, I happen to find reading the grosses to be fun...) 

Broadway Cast Recordings You Should Buy Now

Is it Theater or Theatre? 

How to Read the Broadway Grosses

What to See on Broadway Now - Summer 2014

Is there anything you'd like to see me cover for About.com? Please let me know. I've got lots of ideas of my own, but I'm always open to suggestions. So, if you could suggest one article that you would like to read, whether it's about Broadway, Off-Broadway, plays, musicals, or any combination thereof, what would it be? 

Broadway Discounts, Theater Etiquette & More

Here's a roundup of my latest posts on About.com (theater.about.com). I'm supposed to post at least twice a week, which is a bit more frequent than I've been used to in my blogging, but so far, coming up with ideas hasn't been a problem. (I mean, I'm getting paid for writing about theater. Where's the downside there?)

If you have any ideas about articles you'd like to see me pursue, please feel free to give me a shout. I'm going to try to confine most of my reviews to the blog, but if you have any ideas about how-to type articles, or fun lists, or insider info you'd like to know about, by all means give me a holler. 

Where to Find Discounts for Broadway Shows Online

Theater Etiquette 101 - Summer 2014 Edition

A Family-Friendly Guide to Broadway - Summer 2014

Insider Secrets of the TKTS Booth

 

My Latest for About.com

Here are my two most recent posts for About.com. One of them is about some A-list Hollywood types that will be playing on Broadway in the coming season (including Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Bradley Cooper):  

Upcoming Hollywood Stars on Broadway - Summer 2014 

The other takes a peek at some of the movie musicals that are scheduled to be released over the next year or so (including Jersey Boys, Into the Woods, and Annie). The second post includes my own take on the recent Into the Woods plot-changes kerfuffle: 

Upcoming Movie Musicals - Summer 2014

Check 'em out. 

My Take on the 2014 Tonys - Plus a New Gig

So, the Tonys are over, and another season has come and gone. I've caught up (mostly) on my reviews, but I wanted to alert y'all out there in EIKILFM land that I've picked up a companion writing gig, and that I'll be migrating some of my posts over to this new platform. Don't worry: I'll still be reviewing all the new musicals on Broadway and many of those from Off-Broadway, as well as shows at my regular regional haunts. I'm hoping that, rather than replace any of my efforts here on the blog, the new gig will act as a complement. 

The new gig is at About.com. I'll be their new "musicals and theater" experts. (Yeah, I know. Musicals are theater too. But the folks at about think that emphasizing "musicals" will lead to greater traffic.) If you'd like to bookmark my homepage, it's at http://theater.about.com. I've posted three articles so far, all about the Tony Awards. Here they are: 

The 2014 Tony Awards: Who Won and Who Should Have Won 

10 Musicals That Didn't Deserve "Best Musical" 

10 Musicals That Won "Best Musical" By Default

As you can probably tell by the titles, my About.com posts will proabably be more "evergreen" items, as opposed to posts about particular shows and people. But there seems to be plenty of room for attitude, which for me has never been in short supply. 

I'll be posting links to my About.com posts here on EIKILFM, so if you're interested you can just click through. Or not. (But I hope you do.)