Here’s how it works: At about four in the afternoon on a relentlessly rainy late winter day, your doorbell rings and you open the front door so your dog can jump on whoever has just arrived, which means your overeager goldendoodle is now clambering all over one of the First Ladies of the American MusicalRead More »

What do you do when a last-minute schedule change means your featured guest star suddenly cancels her appearance? If you’re me, you take to Twitter, ask your followers who they would be most excited to see, and end up with three stupendous stars on the rise who bring so much joy and warmth to theRead More »

It’s been an unbelievable year of shows at the SubCulture residency. So many dazzling artists doing thrilling work and really pushing me to keep up – Carrie Manolakos, Sutton Foster, the astonishing quartet of Dr. Patrice E. Turner, A.J. Sojola, NaTasha Yvette Williams and Nova Payton, the dynamic duo of Blaemire and Iman, Gavin Creel,Read More »

Twenty years ago, Carolee Carmello headed the company of my first Broadway show, Parade, and poured her voice of molten brass right into my music for a Tony Award nomination and a performance for the ages. Twenty years later, Solea Pfeiffer stood on the stage of City Center to sing in the first New YorkRead More »

The amazing Chris McGriff invited me out to the Hill School to share a wonderful night with his amazing students, who had just finished a run of Songs for a New World and couldn’t wait to ask me a million questions about it and why there are blessings on the water and the stones. HopeRead More »