When one thinks of April, thoughts of Spring come to mind, for it is a season of renewal. In our nation’s capital, we have the Cherry Blossom trees that surround the Potomac River. But, despite the tranquility of the season, we are reminded by the celebrated poet, T.S. Eliot, that ‘April is the cruelest month.’ Painfully, we have seen that his words are, hauntingly, prophetic. I doubt that Eliot could ever imagine the natural and man-made disasters that have marred the pages of the April calendar. On April 4, 1968, the civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,...

WESTCHESTER, NY – For those of you who are in denial over the unofficial end of summer, we have the perfect antidote.  The Westchester Broadway Theatre is now offering (through October 7) the legendary Cole Porter celebrated musical ‘Can-Can.’ The stellar cast, led by Tony Lawson and Glory Crampton, takes us on a stunning trip back into time, to the working-class area of Paris, France in 1893. Newly installed Judge Aristede Fostier joins his learned legal colleagues in the prosecution of La Mome Pistache, propietress of Bal Du Paradis, a dance hall in which the long-legged Bohemian femme-fatales offer their patrons a...

WESTCHESTER, NY – Friday evening, June 8, was a special evening for the opening night of the Westchester Broadway Theatre’s current musical production of ‘George M!’ The 20th Annual Memorial Bob Fitzsimmons Scholarship Award was given to Archbishop Stepinac graduating senior Albert Stenaj who is planning for a career in theatre. Sitting in the audience was actress Patti Mariano who, as a child in 1957, played George M. Cohen’s little sister Josie in the TV movie ‘Mr. Broadway.’ Ms. Mariano’s association with the father of musical comedy continued when she played in the ensemble of the original...

WESTCHESTER, NY – The new musical, Hairspray, currently playing at the Westchester Broadway Theatre, has something for everyone.  It is a light-hearted story that tackles some very serious issues.  It validates the concept that if one perseveres long enough, success will be met.  Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes.  And, reminds us all, that we are equal, regardless of skin color. The musical’s road to Broadway was a long and winding one.  It began as a cult film by John Waters in 1988, with Rikki Lake in the title role of the pleasingly plump teenager Tracy Turnblad.  The late drag queen, Divine, played her mother....

As the country waits to see who the GOP Vice-Presidential nominee will be this year,  I thought it might be enlightening to take a glimpse into the lives of the men who have served as Vice-Presidents.  The late comedian Rodney Dangerfield’s famous tag line was ‘I get no respect.’ The same may be said of the occupants of the office of our nation’s Second-in-Command.  Over the last 220 years, 47 men have held the office.    John Adams, our nation’s first ‘Second-in-Command,’ was quoted as saying: “I am Vice President and in this I am nothing.” John Nance Garner, who occupied the office...