FANS OF BROADWAY MUSICALS can get a front-row view of musical history by browsing
our theater reviews dating back to 1923. We've written about all of the greatest Broadway composers, from Oscar Hammerstein and Cole Porter to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim. Some highlights from our coverage:
Ira Gershwin writes the words to George's songs. Quieter than his more brilliant brother, he once tried to be an author. He spent two days polishing a poem, submitted it to a magazine. It was accepted. Ira Gershwin received a check for $1.00, abandoned literature, took to composing words for George.
From Gershwin Bros.
Jul. 20, 1925
In 1909, Irving Berlin decided he was made. A Tin-Pan Alley firm hired him as a $25-a-week lyric writer. Fussy English words were beyond him. (His mother stuck to Yiddish until she died.) But he had a gift for blending the vernacular with tunes that were catchy and easy to sing.
From Quarter Century
May. 28, 1934
In the season 1924-1925, to pick a sample year, there were 46 musical shows on Broadway. Then the radio went on the air and the cinemusical on the screen. Tastes changed, repetition cloyed, purses flattened. Gradually the number of musicomedies on Broadway dwindled. Last year there were six.
From The Boys From Columbia
Sep. 26, 1938
The Boys from Syracuse is the 25th show that Rodgers & Hart have worked on together. Since they first met in 1919, when Hart was 23 and just out of Columbia, and Rodgers 16 and just going in, they have never done a stick of work apart.
From The Boys From Columbia
Sep. 26, 1938
All Oklahoma's horses and all Oklahoma's men have put another charmer together again. But Oklahoma's and Carousel's Composer Rodgers, Librettist Hammerstein, Choreographer Agnes de Mille, Director Rouben Mamoulian, Costume Designer Miles White have not repeated themselves. Carousel strays pretty far from Oklahoma!, just as it shies completely away from Broadway.
From New Musical In Manhattan
Apr. 30, 1945
In the ninth row orchestra, way over on the right side of the house (permitting a dash backstage in case of a crisis), sat the man responsible for this unconventional musicomedy opening scene. Oscar Hammerstein II, a bulky man with a friendly, roughcast face, kept his bright blue eyes fixed on the stage. Could it be that Oscar Hammerstein was worried?
From The Careful Dreamer
Oct. 20, 1947
Born to wealth and bred to spend it, Cole Porter has shown such zest as tunesmith and playboy during most of his 55 years that many an admirer thinks of him as a brilliant dilettante. Actually, as Kiss Me, Kate proves better than any of his previous work, he is one of the most thoroughly trained musicians among U.S. popular composers.
From The Professional Amateur
Jan. 31, 1949
Distinguished merit West Side Story lacks; but its distinguishing merit, its putting choreography foremost, may prove a milestone in musical-drama history.
From New Musical in Manhattan
Oct. 7, 1957
This season Comden and Green are more visible than ever, with two flourishing Broadway shows—Say, Darling, Bells Are Ringing—plus their movie version of Auntie Mame.
From A Party for Friends
Jan. 5, 1959
To acerbic critics and ardent fans alike -- and Sondheim, at 57, is surely the most controversial major figure in the American theater -- his own dispassionate characterization evokes the distinctive flavor of the work that has brought him five Tonys.
From Master of the Musical
By William A. Henry III
Dec. 7, 1987
Talent, friendship, strife, love interest, money -- it seems to have everything. Now there's uplift for you! We'll call it Andrew Lloyd Webber and His Amazing Technicolor Career. I think we've got a winner!
From Magician of The Musical
By Michael Walsh
Jan. 18, 1988
When composer Frederick Loewe looked back on a career with lyricist Alan Jay Lerner that included Brigadoon, My Fair Lady and Camelot, he reportedly said he could not get over how easy he and his partner made it all seem.
From Legs Diamond Shoots Blanks
By William A. Henry III
Jan. 9, 1989
When On the Town opened in 1944, New York, New York really was a helluva town. And Broadway was one fabulous art form. Oklahoma!, cornpone revolutionizer of the musical, was playing nearby, and Carousel was about to open.
From Old Shows, New Spirit
By Richard Corliss
Sep. 1, 1997
Four years ago, when a panel of nabobs from the Recording Industry Association of America chose the 365 songs of the 20th century, 'Rainbow' came in first. Yet the press release announcing the 'Rainbow' triumph omitted the name of its composer, Harold Arlen, and its lyricist, E.Y. Harburg.
From That Old Feeling: The Rainbow Man
By Richard Corliss
Feb. 28, 2005
In fact, Mary Poppins is not just a big, eye-pleasing production; it's Disney's most endearing, human-scaled and emotionally satisfying musical yet.
From The Battle For Broadway: Poppins vs. Dyland Plus Grey Gardens and Spring Awakening
By Richard Zoglin
Nov. 5, 2005
Still, Fame Becomes Me shows what can happen when smart TV gag writing is given some Broadway polish, and a performer who can squeeze every ounce of juice out of a line, and then italicize it with a bodily contortion you don't expect to see in people older than eight.
From Short and Sweet
By Richard Zoglin
Aug. 25, 2006
Now that I've seen the new Broadway revival of A Chorus Line[EM]directed by Bob Avian, who co-choreographed the original with creator Michael Bennett[EM]my memories can rest easy. It's a great show, and this revival proves why.
From A Chorus Line: Still Kicking
By Richard Zoglin
Oct. 6, 2006
Perky, pretty in pink and packaged with the requisite mix of campy condescension and you-go-girl inspiration, the show looks poised to become Broadway's next hit. If so, it will largely be thanks to the theater's hot audience of the moment: tween and teen girls.
From Legally Blond and Broadway's Girl Appeal
By Richard Zoglin
April 26, 2007
Yet it was clear from the first note of the Encores! Follies that the best revivals bring a new clarity to old shows. Director-choreographer Casey Nickolaw, whose recent Broadway work (Spamalot, The Drowsy Chaperone) has been spot-on silly, somehow summoned a perfect reading of the antique text, and piqued in people who'd seen the show before one of those 'Eureka!' moments.
From Broadway's Fabulous Follies
By Richard Corliss
May 12, 2007
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