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/
Yesterday morning, for the first day of my entire life, I woke up into a world without Stephen Sondheim. I cannot say that I like it better than the world I have known every day before that. It feels somehow bereft, stolen, less than, without…
Things looked pretty much the same. The Sun was shining
…”I think about you.”
There was Sky
…”I remember sky.”
The proletariat was going to and from the subway station
…”and another hundred people just got off of the train.”
So you see, it is woven into the fabric of my being how he helped me see the world.
…”Take me to the world that’s real. Show me how it’s done.”
Like so many legendary icons of Show Business, Stephen and I had a few direct contacts but he would not have known me. I do remember when he came to see Richard Maltby’s THE SIXTIES PROJECT. I was seated diagonally in front of him. He was so quiet and polite and unassuming, yet I could not keep my eyes from darting over my right shoulder.
Just to be in his presence…
…”All I know is, the minute you turn
And he’s suddenly there,
There won’t be trumpets!”
It got back to me that his only comment on the show was
(more…)Posted by Arnold J. Mungioli on November 28, 2021
https://livethequestionsnow.com/2021/11/28/the-first-day-of-my-life-in-a-world-without-stephen-sondheim/
As another Academic Year draws to a close let us review:
1. Your parents paying a quarter of a million dollars for your college education does not entitle you to a diploma. You earn that through your work.
Yes, the money is obscene. Yes, as NEAL GABLER put it in last month’s article in the THE ATLANTIC [Link may be found here:
], “I’m not saying that universities are extortionist, but, well…universities are extortionist” — Educational institutions can be a lot like the Profiteering Insurance Companies that call themselves “Health Care.” They don’t care about your Health. They are there to take your money.
A Meme from the Internet
Nevertheless, Tuition Payment does not entitle you to a degree.
It entitles you to something much better: an Education.
2. When you get out into the real world and hold a job for 6 months, that does not qualify you as an expert in your field. (more…)
Posted by Arnold J. Mungioli on June 22, 2016
https://livethequestionsnow.com/2016/06/22/to-all-of-the-students-who-have-failed-my-class/
Live The Questions Now 