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Tributes, appreciations and artist profiles from TheaterScene.net.

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Terrence McNally (1938–2020): Theater Changes Hearts

October 31, 2026

Playwright Terrence McNally
Terrence McNally, the four-time Tony-winning playwright of Love! Valour! Compassion!, Master Class and Ragtime, died March 24, 2020, at 81. Looking back at 16 TheaterScene.net reviews and columns, from Mothers and Sons to Lincoln Center Theater's Ragtime. [more]

Stephen Sondheim (1930–2021): The Last Giant, Seen From Our Seats

October 27, 2026

Stephen Sondheim, white-bearded and smiling, in a tweed jacket over a blue open-collar shirt
Stephen Sondheim, the composer and lyricist who reshaped the American musical, died on Friday, November 26, 2021, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He was 91. His lawyer, F. Richard Pappas, said that the death was sudden. The day before, he had celebrated Thanksgiving with friends and spent Wednesday at two Broadway performances,“doing what he most loved to do.” No cause was given. The news broke twelve days after the Classic Stage Company opened its Assassins, a production TheaterScene reviewed that month. This is a look back at how our critics heard him, which they did in some 40 posts over two decades. [more]

Duncan Sheik (1969–2026): The Sound of Spring Awakening

October 26, 2026

Black-and-white portrait of composer Duncan Sheik in dark-rimmed glasses ``` Title ``` Duncan Sheik ``` Caption ``` Duncan Sheik (1969–2026) ``` Description ``` Duncan Sheik, Tony Award-winning composer of Spring Awakening, who died September 17, 2026, at 56. ``` The image looks like a screenshot. If you know where it came from, add a photo credit to the caption, for example "Duncan Sheik (1969–2026)
Duncan Sheik, the singer-songwriter who went from the pop charts to Broadway and gave Spring Awakening its rock score, died on September 17, 2026, in New York. He was 56. His family had said earlier that he was hospitalized in critical condition. He died with two shows about to open Off-Broadway: his new musical Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen and a revival of Spring Awakening, which brought him his first Tony Awards. [more]

Anna Louizos Tribute

October 26, 2026

Alt Text: ``` Scenic designer Anna Louizos in a white shirt, with her name and the dates June 24, 1957 – August 25, 2026
Anna Louizos, the three-time Tony-nominated scenic designer behind Avenue Q, In the Heights and School of Rock, died August 25 at 69. TheaterScene's critics reviewed her work 19 times, from Avenue Q's pop-open townhouses to Joy at the Laura Pels last summer. [more]

REX REED: A REMEMBRANCE

May 16, 2026

Rex Reed with KT Sullivan, Joyce Breach and Jeff Harnar
I'm sorry to note the passing of Rex Reed. He was 87. And it's startling for me to write that he was 87, because to me he was always the handsome, dashing young man about town whom I first met decades ago. (That's why I'm posting a couple of publicity photos of him when he was younger, as well as one from more recent years, along with a snapshot of Rex, taken a few years ago, with several cabaret stars he liked very much: KT Sullivan, Joyce Breach, and Jeff Harnar.) I liked Rex. Oh, he could be quite acerbic in reviews, if he didn't like a film or a concert, or a cabaret show. And he cultivated a public image of being a curmudgeon. But if he liked you--and we always got along great--he was a pussycat. [more]

REMEMBERING KEN PEPLOWSKI

April 13, 2026

Ken Peplowski (courtesy of Wikipedia)
Ken Peplowski was not just the greatest clarinet player of his generation; he was a friend I admired for some 46 years—beginning well before he became famous. Oh, he did a bit of work outside of jazz on his way to the top. (He told me he witnessed far more hijinks of every sort when he did the musical “Annie” than he ever witnessed in the supposedly dissolute world of jazz.) But jazz was his first love. I found his unflagging zest for life inspiring. [more]

Remembering Scotty Bennett

February 16, 2026

Scotty Bennett, TheaterScene.net critic
He never turned down a review request except when he had already accepted the assignment from another publication or if he was a close friend of someone associated with the production. We attended the theater together twice as colleagues ("Ode to the Wasp Woman" at the Actors Temple Theatre on Nov. 6, 2023 and "The United States vs. Ulysses" at the Irish Arts Center on May 1, 2025). At dinner both times, Scotty proved he was not only knowledgeable about the theater and other fields, he had seen and remembered everything. He also was a great raconteur with many stories from his varied life and career to tell. [more]

R.I.P. “UNCLE FLOYD” VIVINO—A REMEMBRANCE  by CHIP DEFFAA

January 26, 2026

Floyd Vivino (1951-2026)
Floyd Vivino honed his comic skills working everywhere from circuses to burlesque shows.  When his  "Uncle Floyd Show" ended its 24-year run, it was the longest-running New Jersey-based show in television history.  But Floyd always said his first love was performing "live," and he'd perform as many as 300 "live": shows in a given year. [more]

Tom Stoppard: An Appreciation

December 5, 2025

Tom Stoppard. Photo by Tricia Baron
With Tom Stoppard’s passing, we look back on a career that transformed theatrical language and feeling. Our tribute revisits Arcadia, Leopoldstadt, Travesties, and The Real Thing through TheaterScene’s critics, capturing the wit, humanity, and intellectual daring that shaped his enduring legacy. [more]

HELEN GALLAGHER: AN APPRECIATION

December 1, 2024

Helen Gallagher on the cover of After Dark Magazine in 1971
Two-time Tony Award-winner Helen Gallagher, who just died at the age of 98, was a terrific musical-theater performer. Oh, she did work in television and film, too--winning three Emmy awards along the way. But it was in the theater, she felt, that she got to make the fullest use of her talents, and do her most memorable work. [more]

REMEMBERING GAVIN CREEL

November 30, 2024

Gavin Creel
His breakout role--the one that made him a "name" in the theater world--was playing "Jimmy Smith," the boyfriend, co-starring opposite Sutton Foster in the Broadway musical "Thoroughly Modern Millie." in 2002. [more]

REMEMBERING TONY BENNETT

July 25, 2023

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He sang all his life. When New York's Triborough Bridge (known today as the RFK Bridge) opened in May of 1936, Tony Bennett--then a boy singer from Astoria who loved the work of Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor--sang at the opening. Mayor Laguardia, he recalled, patted him on his head! [more]

R.I.P. Robert Patrick, Playwright

April 24, 2023

Robert Patrick at the world premiere of his play in March 26, 2023 at the Silverlake Lounge, Los Angeles
He was perhaps best-known for his play "Kennedy's Children"--produced successfully on Broadway and on the West End, and in many cities, internationally.  He also gave  us some 60 other published plays, including "Camera Obscura," which was filmed for PBS starring Marge Champion,  and "The Haunted Host," which helped launch the acting career of a terrifically talented young  Harvey Fierstein.  They met when Fierstein was 16; Patrick gave Fierstein his first leading role in an Equity production, and they became good friends for life, (I have good memories of Harvey performing a striking monologue from that play, years later, during an appearance at the club Eighty-Eights). [more]

An Appreciation of Todd Haimes, Producing Artistic Director of Roundabout Theatre Company

April 21, 2023

Todd Haimes (1956 – 2023)
Roundabout, under Haimes' leadership, was noted both for new works and for revivals of older shows with strikingly new elements (like this season's gender-bending revival of "1776.")  He was the first producer to try livestreaming a Broadway show ("She Loves Me" in 2016). And somehow, besides producing lots of shows (and 11 Tony Awards), Haimes also found time to teach at Yale University and Brooklyn College.  The biggest change he saw in theater in his career, he said, was the change in audience composition, with Broadway growing more and more reliant on tourists. He said it bothered him that nowadays, in his opinion, so many theater ticket buyers preferred to see crap so long as a star they knew from TV or film was heading the cast, than see a better play with better (but not necessarily famous) actors. [more]

Remembering Robert Clary: From the Concentration Camps to Broadway and Hollywood

November 27, 2022

Robert Clary in later years (Courtesy of Brian Gari)
Clary scored a great success on Broadway in "Leonard Sillman’s New Faces of 1952."  My father, who enjoyed that show, recalled Eartha Kitt and Robert Clary as the standouts in the cast of largely-unknown up-and-coming performers that also included Paul Lynde, Alice Ghostley, Carol Lawrence, and Ronny Graham.  None of the performers were yet big names.  And the smart, fast-paced revue gave them important exposure.  (My father noted that this was an especially good revue, in a time when revues were still a staple of Broadway.  He missed the revues when revues fell out of fashion on Broadway.)  Producer/writer Leonard Sillman, whose various New Faces revues enlivened Broadway from the 1930’s through the 1960’s, helped advance the careers of plenty of talented newcomers over the years, beginning with Henry Fonda and Imogene Coca, the standouts in Sillman’s first revue in the series, "New Faces of 1934." [more]

An Appreciation of Michael Feingold (1945-2022)

November 23, 2022

Michael Feingold
He saw seemingly everything, and championed plays and productions he found meaningful, even if they were at the smallest of theaters.  He chose what he wished to cover, and would sometimes expound at great length about a drama Off-Broadway or Off-Off-Broadway that he felt was worthwhile and might otherwise be neglected, and then dispatch in the shortest, most terse review imaginable a big, glossy commercial Broadway musical that he was sure would find an audience but—in his eyes—was devoid of much artistic value. [more]

On the Passing of Aaron Carter

November 14, 2022

Aaron Carter
He had his first album out by age nine, the same year he began opening for the Backstreet Boys. (His older brother, Nick Carter, was of course one of the Backstreet Boys.)  And he enjoyed a good run, with hit records, concerts, videos, TV guest shots.  He even got to star in a now-forgotten movie, Popstar, in which my friend David Cassidy had a supporting role, playing his manager. [more]

Jay Rogers: A Remembrance

November 12, 2022

Jay Rogers
Jay Rogers, who's lost his battle with cancer, was a wonderfully impish cabaret star, with impeccable comic timing. Totally likeable fellow, on stage and off stage. I was so happy to be able to include him on an album I produced this year, "Chip Deffaa's My Man.” He's a total delight, singing an original song by Barry Kleinbort, "Leading Lady Valentine." I'm so glad he was able to record it for me. No one else could have put over that special material with such great charm. I would not have recorded that song had he been unavailable. And I'd hoped to record him again.  I first saw him, several decades ago, in a witty cabaret show at Eighty-Eights, singing songs of George Winters. [more]

In Memory of Playwright/Director/Actor Douglas McGrath

November 12, 2022

Douglas McGrath and Carole King
In October, he opened in an autobiographical Off-Broadway play that he wrote, 'Everything's Fine"—a good-natured remembrance of his youth, and of a school teacher who fell for him.  He performed the show, as usual, on the night of November 2nd, and everything did, indeed, seem to be fine.  He was expecting to continue the run into 2023, and then focus on the film adaptation of "Beautiful." But on November 3rd, 2022, he died at his Manhattan office, unexpectedly, of a heart attack.    [more]

Robert Morse: An Appreciation

April 22, 2022

Robert Morse and Carol Channing rehearsing for the national tour of “Sugar Babies”
He won a Tony Award starring in the Broadway masterwork "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."  And fortunately his performance was captured well in the film adaptation of that brilliant show.  (Watch that film for a sample of his greatness.) And he won another Tony Award for "Tru,'his one-man show about Truman Capote (which was later successfully adapted for public television). He was simply compelling. And people who would never have watched the real Truman Capote speak for an evening were mesmerized by his theatrical version of Capote.  I was impressed, too, by his ability to surrender himself entirely to the needs of the role; if he was portraying a real person, like Truman Capote (or, later, Dominick Dunne, for "American Crime Stories"), he could become the character so thoroughly, you almost forgot you were watching Robert Morse. [more]

On the Town with Chip Deffaa: “Rent” at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts: An Appreciation

April 7, 2022

The cast of The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts production of “Rent” (Photo credit: Abe Ariel)
This production was an ensemble success—which is what Jonathan Larson was hoping to achieve—so I’d like to mention every member of the company.   Not just the leads, whom I very much enjoyed  (Logan Spaleta,  Brendan Dugan,  Lily Resto-Solano as an appealingly amiable “Mimi Marquez,” Justin Nicot as the insouciant “Angel Dumont Schunard,” Monica Malas making the most of  the role of “Maureen Johnson,” Tsehai Marson as her frustrated girlfriend “Joanne Jefferson,”  Luke Studley Roberts as “Tom Collins” (who falls for “Angel”), and Matthew Macneal as landlord “Benjamin Coffin III”), but every member of the ensemble: Olivia Summer, Nicholas Martell, Miekayla Pierre, Ben Gluck, Sophia Longmuir, Gabriel Paredes, Isaac Wilson, Isabella Soleil Smith, Daniel Stowe, Jaiden Torres, Monica Malas, Ellistair Perry, Zune Misrra-Stone. [more]

Remembering George Wein

September 15, 2021

George Wein with wife Joyce
George Wein, who died peacefully at his New York apartment at the age of 95, was the founder of the modern music festival.  His contributions to pop culture were enormous.   I liked him very much.  He was easy to talk to, always candid and frank in our talks, and he was wholly committed to the music he loved.  Starting in the early 1950’s, he created the Newport Jazz Festival, and followed that with assorted other festivals: the Newport Folk Festival, the Kool Jazz Festival, the JVC Jazz Festival, the Grand Parade du Jazz (in Nice, France), the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and more. [more]

Remembering Don Schaffer

August 5, 2021

Don Schaffer at home (Photo credit: Chip Deffaa)
Don long worked as a publicist for one singer he greatly admired; when age and ill health prevented her from working much anymore and her finances grew precarious, she told him she could no longer afford a publicist and would have to let him go. He continued to do what he could for her, gratis, and when she died he handled the public relations, to ensure she got the sort of send-off she deserved, even though there was no one to pay him for his services; he felt it was his responsibility as her long-time publicist. [more]

EDITH O’HARA—A PERSONAL REMEMBRANCE

October 21, 2020

EDITH O’HARA AT THE 13TH STREET THEATRE
There were few women in positions of authority when she started in theater.  But as she once told me, “If I wanted to do something, I just went ahead and did it.”  She blazed a trail for others to follow.  And she was proud of the fact that many notables had worked at The 13th Street Theatre, at one time or another (often when they were just getting started), including Bette Midler, Barry Manilow, Chazz Palminteri, Amy Stiller, Jamie DeRoy, Christopher Meloni, Armelia McQueen, Charles Ludlam, Austin Pendleton, Barnard Hughes, Richard Dreyfuss, and  many others. For 17 years, the unique, dark monologist Brother Theodore--a Greenwich Village icon, whose wonderfully theatrical late-night rants enthralled fans--made The 13th Street Repertory Company his base.  Her production of Israel Horovitz’s “Line” ran at her theater for some 45 years, becoming the longest-running theatrical production in New York.  She liked to have things happening at her theater, day and night. [more]

ON THE PASSING OF THE NEW YORK MUSICAL FESTIVAL…

January 10, 2020

Steve Rosen and David Rossmer in the Off Broadway revival of “The Other Josh Cohen” at the Westside Theatre/Upstairs (Photo…
The festival has given birth to musicals that have gone on to Broadway ("Next to Normal," "Chaplin," "[title of show]," "In Transit") and Off-Broadway ("Altar Boyz," "The Other Josh Cohen," "My Vaudeville Man," "Yank!," "Cyclops," "Bedbugs," etc.)   Its shows have been produced in all 50 states and in 27 countries.Productions launched at the festival have won one Pulitzer Prize, three Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, and seven Drama Desk Awards.  That’s a terrific track record. [more]

CAROL CHANNING… A Personal Remembrance

January 15, 2019

carol channing
She encouraged me to dream big, grab opportunities when they came, and work full steam--and not to wait, because none of us know how much time we have. (I thought she'd live forever.) When she decided it was time to write her memoirs, she asked if I could meet with her. She told me she wasn't a writer, she couldn't possibly write a book by herself, and asked if we could do an "as told to" book together, with her telling me stories which I could put into book form. [more]

Carol Channing died Jan 15, 2019

January 15, 2019

#9. Carol Channing and Chip Deffaa
Theaterscene.net is deeply saddened to report the passing of the legendary Carol Channing. Channing died at 12:31am on Tuesday, January 15th, 2019, at home in Rancho Mirage, CA of natural causes. [more]

STEPHEN SCHWARTZ CONCERT FEATURED STARS, SHOW TUNES, and “GODSPELL” TRIBUTE

November 20, 2018

osf2
Andy Stein, Founder and Executive Chairman, stated: “There are not enough words to say how thankful we are to the legendary Stephen Schwartz for his incredible support of the children of the Orphaned Starfish Foundation, to Michael Lavine, Paul Kreppel and Carol De Giere who made this a reality, and to all the wonderful Broadway stars who donated their performances that made tonight so very special. This night exceeded our expectations in all ways and raised much needed funding,for the programs of the Orphaned Starfish Foundation. This night exceeded our expectations in all ways and raised much needed funding,for the programs of the Orphaned Starfish Foundation. [more]

David Cassidy …. A Personal Remembrance

November 23, 2017

David Cassidy and Chip Deffaa
I'm sorry to note the passing of David Cassidy. And I want to share a few  remembrances of him--as a performer and as a person. He was capable of conveying magic in his concerts--a "Peter Pan" figure, eternally young. On stage, he managed to seem--for decades--to be a kind of happy-go-lucky teenager.  And he never got tired of having fans--whether gals or guys--tell him he'd been their first crush.  [more]

Appreciation of Peter Hall by Stephen Unwin

September 25, 2017

Sir Peter Hall at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards at the Dorchester Hotel, London.
This was a man who loved words, the exact turn of the phrase, its cadence and where the stress falls, whether in Shakespeare or Pinter, Beckett or Stoppard, and his commitment to the nuance of language lay at the heart of everything he did. He used to tell a story about working with Dustin Hoffman on The Merchant of Venice and being delighted when Dustin turned up to rehearsal one morning declaring that ‘you can’t improvise this shit’. For Peter, the detail of the language was everything. A young director mocked him as an ‘iambic fundamentalist’: Peter was thrilled. Words, words, words were everything. [more]

Spotlight Cabaret: Ella At 100

May 29, 2017

Sue Matsuki ES Jacobs photo
It's Ella Fitgerald's centennial. She influenced more than a generation of singers and musicians. The lady called the “Queen of Jazz” or “The First Lady of Song” would have turned 100 this year. Her bounty is unmatched. Among her musical gifts, Ella was an exceptionally well-rounded musician, a pristine vocalist and impeccable improviser. She was jazz. There have been many first ladies of this or that but Ella was an original, clarion-voiced swing singer in a league of her own. [more]

Cabaret Spotlight: Hey There, Good Times

February 21, 2017

No Picture
The measure of a singer's worth is in the ear of the beholder. What is one person's Piaf is another person's Barbra. There's no magic formula to being one of the great ones. All one can do is be dedicated to the art and have a willingness to experiment and keep at it come rain or shine. The rest is a matter of luck and timing, talent and tenacity. For some, the call might come late. But when answered, there's no turning back. [more]

The Dessoff Choirs: We Remember

November 15, 2016

Conductor Malcolm J. Merriweather and The Dessoff Choirs and Orchestra (Photo credit: Carolyn Davis)
Performed the evening before the American election, the theme and purpose of the concert – remembrance of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., two “outstanding stewards of humanity,” in Merriweather's words, whose lives were cut short by violence – embodied for musicians and audience alike art's core purposes. Art locates, grounds and inspires us; it gives us vocabularies for understanding ourselves. In the case of the works on this program, the American music of remembrance, contained in pieces by Steven Stucky and David Hurd, reminds us that moral and political conscience transcends individual lives and is strong within us all, even when our heroes are slain; and Mozart's "Requiem" calls up the universality of hope for salvation and pleadings for peace. [more]

Cabaret Spotlight: Two Good To Be True

July 17, 2016

John Lloyd Young (Photo credit: Maryann Lopinto)
If you're stuck in the city in the hot summer, there's good reason to come to the cabaret. All the Manhattan clubs have impressive lineups for the summer months. Some of the most entertaining and musically refined engagements can be found at Feinstein's/54 Below as they offer rosters that are hard to top. Two recent engagements stand out. [more]

Mickey Rooney .. An Appreciation

April 2, 2014

Mickey Rooney .. An Appreciation
Mickey Rooney was always a treat, whether playing an Average Joe, a gangster, George M. Cohan, or Pinocchio.... I always loved seeing him, on screen or in person. And I liked talking with him. (One conversation we had, late in his life, was a little sad. He noted that for several years he had been MGM's biggest-money maker; in his heyday, his fans had packed movie theaters from coast to coast; no matter what films he was in. But now, his personal appearances tended to draw modest crowds. Where were his fans, he asked aloud, muttering that audiences were fickle. I didn't no how to respond. Audiences weren't necessarily fickle; he'd simply outlived most of his original fans.) [more]

Spotlight on Ahrens and Flaherty: Dessa Rose and a Merkin Hall Tribute Concert

March 28, 2005

Spotlight on Ahrens and Flaherty: Dessa Rose and a Merkin Hall Tribute Concert
The 12-person cast, as staged by longtime Ahrens & Flaherty director Daniele Graciele, presents a moving tale throughout the show. However, the material, especially in Ahren's dialogue scenes, can be very repetitive and can seem overly sentimental. This is often the case with Ahrens & Flaherty shows, which usually contain a batch of stunning musical numbers performed by excellent actors in shows that never seem to be perfected – say "My Favorite Year," "Ragtime," and "A Man of No Importance." Of course, one is glad that Ahrens & Flaherty's shows get regularly produced on Broadway, Off Broadway, and at Lincoln Center. [more]

Copyright Jack Quinn, 2001-2026