“Frozen,” the Walt Disney feature which just opened as the season’s big, animated holiday film, is a movie that almost didn't happen – in spite of years of trying to get an animated film done on Hans Christian Andersen's “The Snow Queen.” Four years in the making, the film arrives and is worth the wait. Critics are calling it the best Disney animated film and musical in years.

There's not a lot of Southern comfort to ease the characters of Beth Henley’s gothic, black-comedy/drama, The Jacksonian, having its New York premiere courtesy of the New Group at Theater Row.

A showing of Britain’s National Theatre production of “The Audience” on June 13, 2013, broadcast live may not have been as controversial as a few years of filmed ballets and operas, but it played up how the electronic medium adversely affected the play. A major criticism of filmed musical performances, such as operas from Met Live, is that they are edited and therefore not true to what audiences see in a theater. The criticism is like that heaped on television for editing films to fit the TV screen.

From the beginnings of Barrington Stage Company, the playwright Mark Saint Germain has enjoyed a close relationship with artistic director Julianne Boyd. The smaller second stage is even named for the dramatist. From August 15-September 29, 2013 Barrington will present St. Germain’s Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah.The play premiered this summer at the Contemporary American Theater Festival, in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, which commissioned it. Through a special agreement with CATF the play is having its “Rolling World Premiere” in Pittsfield.

Kate Burton stars in Tom Stoppard’s Hapgoodin a just-about sold-out, two-week run (July 10-21, 2013) in a return to familiar home turf at the Williamstown Theater Festival. Her husband, Michael Ritchie, was WTF’s former artistic director for nine years. The current AD, Jenny Gersten, was his assistant producer.

The original Broadway cast CD of Grammy-winning rock icon Cyndi Lauper and four-time Tony Harvey Fierstein’s richly diverse Kinky Boots,nominated for 13 Tonys, including Best Musical, Score, and Book, is now available (Masterworks Broadway).

What I’ll always remember about Jean Stapleton is her wonderful giggle followed by an uproarious laugh. And when Miss Stapleton laughed, everyone heard. But there was so much more to this terrific lady: her sweetness, kindness, and thoughtfulness.

Of course, being a musicals buff, I knew who Jean Stapleton was when she got the co-starring role in TV’s groundbreaking “All in the Family.” I remembered her from the film adaptations of Bells Are Ringing and Damn Yankees and so regretted that I never got to see her do those roles onstage.

Charles Giuliano recently sat down for a conversation with Barrington Stage artistic director Julianne Boyd to discuss the ever-complicated relationship between critics and the artists they cover.

Charles Giuliano recently interviewed Massachusetts’ Barrington Stage Company artistic director Julianne Boyd about the theater’s $7 million capital campaign.

Charles Giuliano: What is the current financial status of Barrington Stage Company?
Julianne Boyd We moved in 2006. This is our 8th season in Pittsfield. Last May we acquired the former V.F.W. just a couple of streets over from our theater.

Guitar-playing, folk-singing octodynamo, Lu Mitchell is mighty fine at 89. Not one to rest on her laurels, Lu is busy writing new songs, launching her tenth album, and rehearsing for her annual Irish show on March 12, 2013 at Pocket Sandwich Theater where she plays four gigs each year. This is in addition to numerous appearances at corporate functions, private parties, a holiday show at Uncle Calvin's Coffee House, and the annual Senior Follies extravaganza at the Eisemann Center.

Editor’s Note: Twice each year, members of The American Theater Critics Association (ATCA) visit a city for several days of theatergoing and soaking in the local culture. In March 2013, ATCA held its annual mini-meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, where Charles Giuliano was able to interview Indy theater critic Melissa Hall.

Coming soon to a theatre near you.

In 2010 Barrington Stage Company, in Pittsfield, MA, presented The Whipping Man by Matthew Lopez. It was staged in the smaller of two theaters now known as the Mark St. Germain after its board member and associate playwright.

Last week, as part of a meeting of American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA), I saw another production of The Whipping Man at the Indiana Repertory Theatre in Indianapolis. Both productions were excellent, with the Indy one far more elaborate in a larger venue (more like Barrington’s main stage).

Singer-actress Lorna Luft makes her Birdland cabaret debut in “Lorna's Living Room,” with two different shows, February 11 and 18, 2013, both at 7pm. “It’s like having old friends over,” she says. “We make merry, laugh, and sing. I’m the hostess-with-the-mostest, so to speak. And anything can happen.”

The 13th season of the Town Hall's “Broadway by the Year” series gets off to a rousing start Monday, Feb. 11, at 8pm saluting 1937. It will be a very romantic line-up of tunes just in time for Valentine’s Day. Headlining will be Nightlife Award winning vocalist Carole J.

The Phantom of the Opera.The longest-running show in Broadway history. 25 years on Broadway. 1,0399 performances. And all in one theater.

Saturday’s black-tie performance for an invited audience of great fans, celebrities and numerous alumni of the show and festive gala was worthy of the opening night of a landmark musical. One that’s become a worldwide blockbuster for composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricists Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe.

Anyone who loves New York and theater surely had a blast with Season One of “Smash.” In spite of some of its time-bending and asinine aspects, viewers will treasure the DVD set (NBC/Universal Studios Home Entertainment; four discs; widescreen; 650 minutes; SRP $45). The musical series, supposedly reality-based, celebrates the thrill and heartbreak of Broadway by following a motley group of dreamers and schemers and great talent, working in a matter of weeks, creating a bio musical on Marilyn Monroe.

Since its premiere at Theater 80 in 2011, Silence! The Musical hasn’t been able to remain silent Off-Broadway at the Elektra Theater (669 Eighth Avenue at 42nd Street) or in its first regional production in Los Angeles and first foreign production in London. In fact, since December 30th, it’s shattered its own previous smash Off-Broadway box-office record.

The bawdy satire has a huge cult following. It was selected by Time magazine as one of the Top Five Musicals of 2011 and won the 2012 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Musical.

As you might expect, the much-honored and celebrated Patti LuPone’s concert at the new and quite trendy 54 Below (located, as you might expect, downstairs from the famous former center of New York nightlife, Studio 54) has been recorded. 54 Below is an intimate space that, with its emphasis on red, resembles a very high-end Barbary Coast bordello. From her entrance and throughout her show, LuPone received thunderous applause.

”Far Away Places” (Broadway Records; SRP, $12.88) captures the show with 16 tracks of tunes and reminiscences, met with great enthusiasm by the audience.

How versatile a performer is Christine Ebersole? Let's count the ways. Many people first became aware of her from her work as a sketch comedian on “Saturday Night Live.” On Broadway, she has played roles as disparate as Ado Annie in Oklahoma!, Guenevere in Camelot, Dorothy Brock in 42nd Street, and Edith Bouvier Beale/Little Edie in Grey Gardens, winning Tony Awards for her performances in the two last-named shows.