Yesterday was the Birthday of Hal Prince.
He would have been 96!
I feel this loss every day.
Midday, as I was rushing from a meeting and on my way to teach a class, my phone began to blow up – first with texts and people reaching out about Chita, then about Hinton.
Two Broadway Legends, gone within the same 24 hours.
Our Map, our Community, our World – shifting dramatically and forever!
Posted by Arnold J. Mungioli on January 31, 2024
https://livethequestionsnow.com/2024/01/31/chita-hinton/
1931-2023
I do not remember the exact moment that I met Joanna Merlin. But I cannot remember my life without her!
She lived her life as a Guardian Angel in human form to those of us who knew her and to the Community at large.
Casting Director.
Actress.
Mother.
Teacher.
Friend.
Talent…
Grace…
Incandescence…
Always and at every turn!
Posted by Arnold J. Mungioli on November 17, 2023
https://livethequestionsnow.com/2023/11/17/joanna-merlin/
In this recently published book, we in the Broadway Community express our Longing for all that we have worked our Lives to do – our Faith that we will rise and do it again, our Hope that we can return not only to the fullest expression of our art, but to a new and better version that honors our time away from it and enables us to express even more fully what we have to share – that which we Love.
As Biblical Scholars have pointed out, Love is the greatest because it ensures that the quality of our interactions with others is Life-Giving, or put another way, Faith and Hope are our own – a more personal experience — whereas Love, we share among others. Faith and Hope get us to Opening Night, and after that comes the really good part: we get to share what we’ve created with the final and greatest collaborator: the Audience!
Broadway…that Fabulous Invalid!
Those of us who Live and Work in this Community have taken a Beating!
No audience gathered together in the dark to share our work…
It’s been a rough two years!
(more…)Posted by Arnold J. Mungioli on February 12, 2022
https://livethequestionsnow.com/2022/02/12/when-the-lights-are-bright-again/
I once knew someone who kept a stack of poetry books in the bathroom – a busy man, when nature called, he would use the time to nourish his soul with the Magical Gift of Poetry, succinct, easily digestible, and sometimes in a moment, Life-altering. It always impressed me how poets – all writers really — could rearrange those same 26 letters of the alphabet over and over and over again to make us feel such a range of emotions.
A little over a year ago, we were all buzzing about.
We’d probably begun to hear about some virus, and at least in New York, we had survived SARS and MERS, and perhaps we’d seen some Folks from Asian countries on airplanes wearing surgical masks and thought something might be going on that affected people far, far away…
Most of us had no idea what was about to happen, or the scope of the journey upon which we had already embarked.
The Great World Shift had begun – we just hadn’t reacted to it yet or taken it seriously.
And here we are now over a year in, still wondering what we can do.
(more…)Posted by Arnold J. Mungioli on April 10, 2021
https://livethequestionsnow.com/2021/04/10/living-not-in-vain/
A Meme from the Internet
Start Something!
Start Something with Courage, Confidence and Compassion!
BRENT CARVER, one of our Community’s most Gifted Actors, once defined, the three basic requirements for good acting: Courage, Confidence and Compassion.
BRENT died a few weeks ago, marking a profound and tragic loss to the Theater, both as an art form and an industry! His unique Talent was somewhat unmatchable…
Are you sad and angry and confused right now?
I am!
How can anyone not be!
(more…)
Posted by Arnold J. Mungioli on August 28, 2020
https://livethequestionsnow.com/2020/08/28/start-something/
HAL PRINCE
January 30, 1928 – July 31, 2019
HAL PRINCE and me at the Opening of CANDIDE
I was HAL PRINCE’s Casting Director for the better part of a decade.
We worked together on his revival of SHOW BOAT from its inception throughout its many productions all around the world. Our production of SHOW BOAT premiered at the North York Performing Arts Center in Toronto 26 years ago. I also worked with HAL on the most recent Broadway Revival of CANDIDE, as well as KISS OF THE SPIDERWOMAN, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, and PARADE.
This year alone, we have found ourselves saying goodbye to countless theater luminaries, including DIAHNN CARROLL, CAROL CHANNING, ANDREW ZERMAN, KAYE BALLARD, PHYLLIS NEWMAN, VALERIE HARPER, BILL ESPER, DORIS DAY, E. KATHERINE KERR, KATHERINE HELMOND, MARTIN CHARNIN, MAX WRIGHT, ALAN WASSER, ALVIN EPSTEIN, ERIC LAJUAN SUMMERS, TONI MORRISON, RIP TORN, GLORIA VANDERBILT, ANN CRUMB, TIM CONWAY, GEORGIA ENGEL, LUKE PERRY, ARTIE GAFFIN, MARION MCCLINTON, KYLE RENICK, RON LEIBMAN, RENE AUBERJONOIS, and So Many Others… But even among so many shattering losses to our Community this year, this one stands out.
HAL PRINCE died on July 31st at the age of 91. There will be a Celebration of his Life at the Majestic Theater next Monday December 16th.
I have never known a professional life without him in it, and the loss to the theater community is perhaps the most profound imaginable.
You see, (more…)
Posted by Arnold J. Mungioli on December 9, 2019
https://livethequestionsnow.com/2019/12/09/hal/
The Bob Fosse Postage Stamp
He Would Have Loved It!
By Arnold J. Mungioli
Arnold J. Mungioli is the Casting Director of Broadway’s Tony-Award-Winning Best Musical, Fosse, among a variety of other projects over the last two decades. He is still working as a Casting Director, Speaker, Writer, Teacher, and LifeCoach today.
This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the show’s opening on Broadway.
[n.b.: Pictures included throughout are mostly of the Dancers, from the hallways after the first Toronto Workshop and the party following the second. Needless to say Actors Equity does not allow us to take photos during the performance.]
On Sunday August 9th, 1998, the Musical, FOSSE opened for its first commercial run in Toronto. Dancing like this had not been seen on stage for at least a decade, and it was magnificent — the very best of show business! A Gala Party followed.
On Monday morning, August 10th, I arrived at my office as usual, only to be greeted by RCMP Officers in the lobby, guns drawn. (more…)
Posted by Arnold J. Mungioli on March 20, 2019
https://livethequestionsnow.com/2019/03/20/he-would-have-loved-it-a-narrative-essay/
Live The Questions Now 