Three years ago I was offered a job to review Broadway Across America touring
shows which was like a dream come true. First of all I love Broadway
and have been going to the theatre since seeing the original Broadway
cast of "Oklahoma" with Alfred Drake and Celeste Holm. Living in New
York during the 50s and 60s I saw all the legends--the actors, the
shows--from Mary Martin to Ethel Merman to Julie Harris, Bea Lillie,
Gertrude Lawrence, Robert Preston, Yul Brynner, John Riatt, Shirley
Maclane, Angela Lansbury, Joel Gray, Laurence Olivier, Vivian Leigh and
on and on. I saw Brando in "A Streetcar Named Desire", Shirley Booth in
"Come Back Little Sheba" and "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Judy Holiday in
"Born Yesterday", "Hot Spot", "Dream Girl" and "Bells Are Ringing". I
was stunned by "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and couldn't stop crying
hearing/seeing Richard Kiley in "Man of La Mancha", I screamed
myselfhorseyelling "Brava" for Barbra Streisand in "Funny Girl", Carol
Burnett in "Fade In-Fade Out" and "Bravo" on opening night of
"West Side Story" and it was there I started my love affair with "A
Chorus Line" and Donna McKechnie. You name the legends--show or actor
and I have seen them , remembered and cherished them including
shows you probably never heard of like "Along 5th Avenue" with Nancy
Walker and Sid Caesar or "Little Me" with the latter. I heard the great
composers, lyricists of the eras and saw set designs and costumes that
would knock you over.

Most
of that came to an end in the 1990s as I was broke and shows were far
too expensive for me to get tickets including for local theatres and
then it happened! I was reading a Broadway web page and there was a
poster asking for someone in the Florida area to review any Broadway
shows coming through. In my high school senior graduation book I had put
"to be a Broadway critic" and here, almost 60 years later, I got the
job!!!

In
the past 3 years I have seen over 40 shows from an aisle seat in the
orchestra of the Arsht Center in Miami and the Broward Performing Arts
Center in Fort Lauderdale including "Mamma Mia", "Warhorse", "Wicked",
"West Side Story", "Shrek", "The Adams Family", "Phantom of the Opera",
"Jersey Boys", "Les Miserables", "Mary Poppins", "The Lion King" along
with seeing Kathleen Turner in "High".

Next
month the new season starts with "Chicago" which just became the
longest running American show on Broadway with 7,000 performances and
then the following month the biggest show with the hardest tickets to
get, "The Book of Mormon" followed by "Once" and various shows
continuing through May when the last show of the 2013-2014 season will
end with the "Blue Man" show. I anticipate each show counting the days
until the next one.

You
will be able to read the reviews at showbizbroadway.com a 5-7 days
before I post them here--that's part of our agreement. Corine, Charlie
and Charlotte have made this 'old' man a very happy guy. There is
nothing that compares to an evening getting ready to watch a Broadway
show with the lights going down, the overture starting and the curtain
going up and then THE SHOW! WOW! Whether the show is good or not I am
always mesmerised by what I see on stage from the actors, singers,
dancers, sets and how it all works.
You
don't see too many children at the theatre in the evenings but whenever
I do I remember that boy in 1945 and I wonder if they will be as
entranced with what they see as I was and am?