On the first Monday in May, I gave a talk at the Aux Dog Theatre to half a hundred people who had an interest in Jersey…

   This morning, I had the honor to take Dreamgirls cast member Aubrey Poo (pronounced Poh-oh) to four radio stations for…

   The favorite musical for many of my friends — including some here at Popejoy Hall — soon comes to the movie screen. Les Misérables makes its motion picture debut…

   As we prepare to open our 46th season this Sunday, I’m packing up my office. With the Capitol Steps on their way in this Sunday, I’m on my way out this Tuesday. I’m…

   The Broadway cast of Disney’s The Lion King has it easier than their counterparts on the road if for no other reason than they don’t have to learn a new theater every few…

   Rewind to 1984.

   Early that spring, I felt like pretty hot stuff. I was working for Rick Johnson & Company on the Paramount Pictures account. We were one of…

   I wish I had been a better student.

   I attended Eisenhower College for my bachelor’s degree. Don’t bother looking for it. It no longer exists. Its syllabus…

   Q Smith started her Wednesday early, especially for an actress. She was up by 7 to get ready for her first full day in Albuquerque.

   She was transported to the…

   “It only takes one person to encourage others and inspire them,” wrote eighth grader Leidy M. She was summing up her study of the novel Les Misérables under student teacher Mari Hawes. Leidy might well have been commenting on her teacher instead of…

   “There are times when I catch in the silence the sigh of a faraway song

   And it sings of a world that I long to see

   Out of reach,…

   I kept getting the emails: Landmark Musicals was holding auditions for 1776 this weekend. Hm. I hadn’t performed in 13 years. The idea was intriguing.…

     Sometimes casting is the hardest part of the job.

     There’s a show opening locally in a couple of weeks and they have a major part they’re still trying to cast. They’ll get it…

     Tom Popejoy attended symphony concerts in Carnegie Hall with President Franklin Roosevelt and fell in love with the music. He loved it so much, his son said, that Tom Popejoy, Jr., never wants to hear Carmen again, his father played…

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Since we at Popejoy Hall began bringing shows like Wicked, Les Misérables and…

Art is not supposed to be comfortable. It doesn’t exist to reaffirm our every belief.

Artists challenge. They poke and prod at the nature of our existence. They examine human inequities and disturb our viewpoints.

Even when the art was not necessarily meant to challenge, it can. Michaelangelo’s statue…

For her 11^th birthday, in 1998, I gave my Capricorn daughter, Nina, a summertime gift: tickets for her first Broadway show, The Lion King, in July. She had practically memorized the animated movie…

Richard Adler, composer for Damn Yankees, wrote about the first audience that show ever had — an afternoon run-through for other people in show…

Stephen Douglass sits out the dance with Gwen Verdon in the original production of Damn Yankees. Peter Stackpole/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Janet Eilber, artistic director of the…

About 20 years ago, I wrote a play for Mystery Cafe called "Guns and Poses." The show required an actor to cross-dress as the female cabaret singer, Bella.

The Sunday before we opened the show at La Posada (now Hotel Andaluz) where…

Auditions are all about long lines and long waits, some longer than others.

Louie Napoleon, Skimbleshanks in the national touring company of Cats, stood in line to audition for…