Phil Silvers News

BWW Reviewer Peter Nason chooses the best film musicals since the sound era began; see if your favorites made the list!

After three successful runs in Los Angeles in 2012, 2014, and 2017 at the Pantages, that smut-mouthed, but endearing musical comedy The Book Of Mormon has squatted downtown at the Ahmanson, and third time around, it has lost none of its luster, or its smut.

Riverside Theatre, led by Producing Artistic Director/CEO Allen D. Cornell and Managing Director/COO Jon R. Moses along with Riverside Theatre's Patron Producers Group, presents Neil Simon's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning comic drama, Lost in Yonkers. Sponsored by Bobbie Olsen and presented by Riverside Theatre's Patron Producers Group, Lost in Yonkers performs on the Stark Stage February 4-23, 2020. 

Executive and Artistic Director Keith Gerth and Associate Artistic Director Stephen Smith of the Oil Lamp Theater in Glenview announce their next production, Neil Simon's dramatic comedy Jake's Women. This production is directed by Josh Johnson and will be performed from January 16th through March 1st 2020 at 1723 Glenview Road in Glenview.

Dumba?? dumbera?? dumbest? Open Fist Theatre Company presents the world premiere of Neil Simon's Musical Fools, an adaptation of the Simon play Fools, with book and lyrics by Neil Simon and music and lyrics by Phil Swann and Ron West (deLEARious, The People Vs Friar Laurence). West also directs, with music direction by Jan Roper and choreography by Louisa Kendrick Burton. Neil Simon's Musical Fools opens Oct. 12 at Atwater Village Theatre, where performances will continue through Nov. 17; pay-what-you-want previews begin Oct. 4.

Woodside Community Theatre (a?oeWCTa??) is proud to present Monty Python's Spamalot, book and lyrics by Eric Idle and music by John Du Prez.

Dumb... dumber... dumbest? Open Fist Theatre Company presents the world premiere of Neil Simon's Musical Fools, an adaptation of the Simon play Fools, with book and lyrics by Neil Simon and music and lyrics by Phil Swann and Ron West (deLEARious, The People Vs Friar Laurence). West also directs, with music direction by Jan Roper and choreography by Louisa Kendrick Burton. Neil Simon's Musical Fools opens Oct. 12 at Atwater Village Theatre, where performances will continue through Nov. 17; pay-what-you-want previews begin Oct. 4.

Robert ('Bob') Ullman (left), the legendary theatre press agent, whose career included Ethel Merman and Mary Martin: Together on Broadway, A Chorus Line (from workshop to Public Theater to Broadway), Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in The Visit, Lauren Bacall in Cactus Flower, The Dining Room, Driving Miss Daisy, Sunday in the Park with George, and over 150 additional Broadway and off-Broadway plays and musicals, died on July 31, 2019 in Bayshore, Long Island, New York. He was 97. The cause of death was cardiac arrest. Bob's death was announced by Rev. Joshua Ellis, a long-time Ullman friend, a former Broadway press agent, and now, an Interspiritual minister.

Her autobiography is entitled I've Slept With Everyone and, after hearing our interview with Sondra Lee, we think you will understand why. Sondra's Broadway credits include High Button Shoes, Peter Pan (where she originated the role of Tiger Lily), Hotel Paradiso, Jerome Robbins Ballet: USA, Sunday in New York, and Hello, Dolly where she originated the role of Minnie Fay!

When it comes to Tony Award snubbing, there are several artistic high crimes and misdemeanors. For instance, Fiorello! winning Best Musical over Gypsy, or the good Music Man besting the better West Side Story. Or how about this awful upset: Two Gentlemen of Verona (the since-forgotten musical) beating both Grease and Follies for the top honor. Perhaps worst of all is this: Even though A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM was Stephen Sondheim's first and most successful Broadway show as a composer and lyricist, and even though it would win six of its eight nominated Tony Awards in 1962-1963 (including Best Musical), Mr. Sondheim himself was not even nominated for his lyrics and score. A show that features some of the most beloved comic songs from the early 1960's--'Comedy Tonight,' 'Lovely,' and 'Everybody Ought to Have a Maid'--wasn't even nominated for these iconic numbers. (For the record, Oliver! won that year for Best Score.) Broadway's greatest composer would have to wait almost a decade to receive his first Tony Award.

That crazy cacophony of choreographic chaos that careens across the City Center stage shortly after the commencement of Act II is the main reason for Encores! to bring back the smash hit 1947 musical comedy High Button Shoes.

Actress Fay McKenzie Waldman passed away peacefully in her sleep on the morning of April 16th at the age of 101. She was born February 19, 1918 into a show business family where she was the youngest of two sisters and an actress cousin, and made her screen debut at only ten weeks old in "Station Content" (1918) in which she was carried in the arms of Gloria Swanson. Her parents, Eva & Bob "Pops" McKenzie were already veteran performers and apparently wanted their daughter to get an early start in films. She nearly stole the show from Oliver Hardy as "the baby" in the Alice Howell short "Distilled Love" (filmed in 1918 but released two years later). By the time she was six, Fay was considered an old hand, having played diverse parts in her father's stock company. Among her early films was the 1924 Photoplay Medal Winner, "The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln." 

TheaterWorks has a long-standing, credible connection to Stephen Sondheim musicals. A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM is a pure crowd-pleaser chomping on the TheaterWorks stage.

Directed by Howard Teichman for the West Coast Jewish Theatre at the Miles Memorial Playhouse in Santa Monica on a beautifully detailed split-level set designed by Kurtis Bedford and lit by Ellen Monocroussos, Neil Simon's classic took on a more emotional dedication from the cast with Simon's passing on August 26, 2018 during the show's rehearsal process. But even though Teichman keeps the pace moving along at a steady pace, running at almost 3 hours with very little laughter, the play, though extremely well written and performed, does seem a bit long and drawn-out as there certainly were moments when it could have ended much sooner and still been as effective.

Award-winning actor, writer, director, producer, polymath and advocate for science communication Alan Alda has been named the 55th recipient of SAG-AFTRA's highest tribute: the SAG Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. Alda will be presented the performers union's top accolade at the 25th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, which will be simulcast live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019, at 8 p.m. (ET)/ 5 p.m. (PT).

It's 1949, the war is over, and America is beginning a new chapter. Eugene Jerome and his brother Stan are being given a chance to audition as comedy writers for CBS in the emerging medium of television. If they succeed, they'll move out of the family home in Brighton Beach and into the Big City. Eugene, however, is distracted. He's fallen in love and thinks his new girl is The One. Stan has episodes of writer's block.

It's 1949, the war is over, and America is beginning a new chapter. Eugene Jerome and his brother Stan are being given a chance to audition as comedy writers for CBS in the emerging medium of television. If they succeed, they'll move out of the family home in Brighton Beach and into the Big City. Eugene, however, is distracted. He's fallen in love and thinks his new girl is The One. Stan has episodes of writer's block.

In TO DAD WITH LOVE, A TRIBUTE TO BUDDY EBSEN; Kiki Ebsen pays tribute to her father in the best way she knows how - singing and story-telling. Kiki graciously walked me through some of her vivid memories of growing up the child of a famous father, a most popular figure of 1960s television, known to weekly TV viewers as Jed Clampett of The Beverly Hillbillies.

It's 1949, the war is over, and America is beginning a new chapter. Eugene Jerome and his brother Stan are being given a chance to audition as comedy writers for CBS in the emerging medium of television. If they succeed, they'll move out of the family home in Brighton Beach and into the Big City. Eugene, however, is distracted. He's fallen in love and thinks his new girl is The One. Stan has episodes of writer's block.

The Broadway community mourns the loss of Neil Simon, who passed away on August 26 at age 91. The Committee of Theatre Owners has decided to dim the lights of Broadway theatres in his memory on Thursday, August 30 at exactly 6:45pm for one minute.