National Dance Day Is Your Cue to Get Into the Groove 

Everybody dance now! It’s the law!  OK, it’s not the law but it is official. National Dance Day, Saturday, Sept. 19, was established in 2010 in a resolution introduced by Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), saluting dance as a form of both exercise and artistic expression. https://youtu.be/3jJFaaxDNao?si=5wYaIv1vFZ8xZ5RN National Dance Day originally was held in July but was changed to the third Saturday in September in 2019. This was good news, especially for dancers... Continue Reading →

Fictional Workers Get Their Say for Labor Day

Musical improv performers live on stage creating Christmas songs from audience input.

Years before “Defying Gravity,” Stephen Schwartz tackled a topic far more down to earth. The composer and lyricist best known for Wicked, found success while still in his 20s. Godspell (1971), Pippin (1972) and The Magic Show (1974, starring hippie magician Doug Henning) were all hits. Then came Working. Working (1978) was not a hit,... Continue Reading →

Whatever the Season, “Summertime” Continues to Shine

It’s August, when West Central Florida’s weather goes from unbearable to “Dear God, no!” The heat and humidity combine to make the walk to your car feel like a death march. Ours is not a dry heat that you barely notice. It is a heavy, sodden heat that can’t be avoided. Given all this, it may strike some residents as strange, perverse even, that so many songs actually celebrate summer. The list... Continue Reading →

Green Eggs, Hamilton and Happy Birthday, U.S.A.

Seeing Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton seems especially appropriate in this year of our nation’s 250th birthday. The musical is a celebration of the United States that acknowledges the contradictions between glorious ideals and less-glorious reality. Aug. 6 is the 10th anniversary of the musical’s Broadway premiere. Hamilton returns to Morsani Hall Oct. 21 - Nov. 8... Continue Reading →

Broadway Tunes a Source of Samples for Pop and Hip-Hop Artists 

When hip-hop began crashing pop culture’s party in the 1980s, Broadway didn’t seem like one of its potential destinations. Hip-hop’s South Bronx birthplace was 11 miles and a cultural world away from the theater district. https://youtu.be/10C-Q3NIlzU?si=_qkxFl8rrFT9cffY However, as hip-hop began infiltrating the mainstream, and eventually becoming the mainstream, it was perhaps inevitable that beats and rhymes would reach the Broadway stage.  By the time Hamilton blew... Continue Reading →

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