Free Republic

Dear, kindly Sergeant Krupke you gotta understand. It's just our bringin' up-ke that gets us out of hand. Our mothers all are junkies, our fathers all are drunks. Golly Moses, naturally we're punks. Gee, Officer Krupke we're very upset. We never had the love that every child oughta get. We ain't no delinquents, we're misunderstood. Deep down inside us there is good. There is good, there is good. There is untapped good. Like inside the worst of us is good. Oh, that's a touchin' good story. Oh well, lemme tell it to the world. Just tell it to the judge....

Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the beloved musical “West Side Story” finally began to screen for awards voters over the weekend ahead of its Christmas Day release. First reactions are pouring out as the film’s official premiere at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles gets underway. Early reactions are offering praise for Spielberg’s direction and high marks for Rachel Zegler as Maria in her film debut. The musical premiered mere days after the death of Stephen Sondheim (who wrote the lyrics for the original production, with a book by Arthur Laurents and score by Leonard Bernstein) at the age of...

A professor has taken over the undergraduate class previously taught by Bright Sheng, Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor of Composition, David Gier, dean of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance announced Friday. The announcement comes almost a month after Sheng showed a video to an undergraduate composition seminar featuring an actor in blackface. Regarding the recent instructor change, Gier wrote that this switch would “allow for a positive learning environment” so students could focus on their “growth as composers.”Sheng, a highly accomplished composer, conductor and pianist, has had his music featured by prestigious groups including the New York Philharmonic...

Google today celebrates the 100th anniversary of composer, conductor, pianist and music raconteur Leonard Bernstein. Linked is a Youtube video of Bernstein conducting Mozart's Symphony no. 39 performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in 1985.

Today marks what would have been the 100th birthday of the great musician, Leonard Bernstein. From Wikipedia: Leonard Bernstein (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the US to receive worldwide acclaim. According to music critic Donal Henahan, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history." His fame derived from his long tenure as the music director of the New York Philharmonic, from his conducting of concerts with most of the world's leading orchestras,...

Booklovers throughout California are lamenting the news that Caravan Book Store shut its doors for good last Tuesday. The shop, owned by 72-year-old Leonard Bernstein, had been a fixture of Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles since it opened in May of 1954.

Leonard Bernstein is described by Wikipedia as "an American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer and pianist." Today would have been his 94th birthday. He was born August 25, 1918 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He died October 14, 1990 in New York City at the age of 72. He was one of the greatest of 20th century musicians (see the aforementioned Wikipedia article). Lenny, as he was known, was also involved in left wing politics. He could be quite the leftist jackass. For example, decades ago, he held a now infamous party for the Black Panthers in his Park Avenue penthouse. Lenny...

Some time ago, in my eternal quest to set the record straight, I suggested that the true hero of the motion picture industry wasn’t Thomas Edison or D.W. Griffith, not Chaplin or Keaton, not Jack Warner or Louis B. Mayer, but the anonymous fellow who first came up with the notion of putting salt on popcorn, thus turning packing material into a concession stand bonanza that costs more per-pound than lox and caviar put together. But there are others who, more often than not, get overlooked while far too much praise is lavished on actors and directors. I refer to...

When the administrators of Catholic University sought a cultural event for the inauguration of the Edward J. Pryzbyla student center, they reached back to a work commissioned for the opening of the Kennedy Center in 1971. Leonard Bernstein's "Mass" has been the focus of a week-long symposium, culminating in two performances last weekend in the Great Room of the new building. The title doesn't tell half the story. Based on the Catholic liturgy interspersed with words by Bernstein, "Godspell" lyricist Stephen Schwartz and even four lines by Paul Simon, it's far more accurately described by its subtitle: "A Theater Piece...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Adolph Green, whose six-decade collaboration with Betty Comden helped create such joyous stage celebrations of New York as ``On the Town'' and ``Wonderful Town'' as well as the classic movie musical ``Singin' in the Rain,'' has died. He was 87. Green died at his Manhattan home Wednesday night, his son, Adam, said Thursday. On Broadway, Comden and Green (the billing was always alphabetical) worked most successfully with composers Leonard Bernstein, Jule Styne and Cy Coleman. The duo wrote lyrics and often the books for more than a dozen shows, many of them built around such stars...