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Best known as a 1933 movie musical spotlighting Busby Berkeley’s spectacular choreography, 42^nd Street began as a novel, authored by Bradford Ropes. It wasn’t until 1980 that 42^nd Street was transfigured into a stage musical – with a book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, lyrics by Al Dubin and music by Harry Warren. Under the frail Gower Champion’s inspired direction and crafty choreography, 42^nd Street went on to win the 1981 Tony Award for Best Musical. Champion received trophies both for Best Direction and Best Choreography. It was the last show of his life.

42^nd Street also had a much acclaimed Broadway revival in 2001, winning the Drama Desk Award that year for Best Revival of a Musical, as well as earning a Tony Award for Christine Ebersole for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical.

Now, the rarely produced 42^nd Street is being mounted by Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West, and with Jon Engstrom’s inventive direction and choreography, along with Michael Borth’s meticulous musical direction, the production marries bustle and beat; the result is irresistible.

Theresa Rebeck’s Seminar had its Broadway premiere in November of 2011. It starred British Actor Alan Rickman in the role of a reputed writing guru who is charging aspiring scribes $5,000 apiece to take part in his brutal 10-week fiction writing seminar. Not only is Rickman’s character, Leonard, of questionable moral quality, there are also questions with regard to his abilities as a writer. After all, earlier in his budding career as literary wunderkind Leonard was accused of plagiarism.

Krapp’s Last Tape is a one-act play by that enigmatic 20^th century scribe Samuel Beckett. It has one actor onstage for less than an hour. During that nearly sixty minutes under the scrutiny of the limelight, the character, named Krapp, celebrates his 69^th birthday by reviewing reel-to-reel audio recordings made throughout his adult life.

With the Verdi Bicentennial fast approaching, many opera companies will choose to celebrate by delving into some of his early, more obscure, operas. LA Opera has chosen to blaze that trail by opening their 2012 – 2013 Season with I Due Foscari (The Two Foscari).One really doesn't get much more obscure than that.

We’ve heard President Obama carry a tune at the Apollo Theater recently. Now, thanks to the zany imaginations of Nicholas Zill and Derek Jeremiah Reid, we are treated to a comedy conceit that has Mr. Obama (Derek Jeremiah Reid) pining to be a soul singer, in How Obama Got His Groove Back,   at South Pasadena’s Fremont Theatre Centre. After all, while campaigning for president can be a challenging process, nothing brings people together like music – at least in this president’s estimation.