Category: Blog
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The Day Robert Guillaume Broke My Heart – When the Phantom of the Opera Removed His Mask
Have you ever witnessed a performance so honest, so exposed, it left you speechless? I have. December 23, 1990, the day Jacques Williams died. Let me back up. In the final days of the 1990s, I bought my sister Phantom of the Operatickets as an early Christmas present. The blockbuster musical was in the middle of…
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Les Miserables Tour Closes
The national tour of Les Misérables closes today. It will have its final performance tonight in Boston. By the time the curtain falls, the production will have played 1,417 performances in 98 cities. I saw this tour twice at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, in 2023 and 2025, and loved it both times. Nick Cartell,…
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The Problem With Cutting “Spanish Rose” from Bye Bye Birdie
Last week, I saw a performance of Bye Bye Birdie at the La Habra Depot Theatre in Orange County. My teenage daughter is a big musical theater fan but had never seen the show. She knew the title from pop culture references, though. Thank you, The Summer I Turned Pretty. The production was a sweet surprise. The cast…
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Movie Musicals – Kiss of the Spider Woman Movie – My Thoughts
I had a text waiting for me when I got out of the screening of Bill Condon’s big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical, Kiss of the Spider Woman. Text: Can Diego Luna sing? My reply: It doesn’t matter. 🙁 Warning: The Broadway musical Kiss of the Spider Woman is one of my favorite musicals of…