We profile 10 women over 40 who found second careers in musical theatre.

While theatres remain dark, revisit some of your favorites with Inside the Theatre, and get a closer look at the details you might miss before the show—plus a deep dive into the theatre's history.

The Playbill staff takes a look back at some of our favorite moments from 2011.

The Playbill staff takes a look back at some of our favorite moments from 2011.

Meet the first-nighters at the opening of the new Broadway production of Terrence McNally's Master Class.

Meet the first-nighters at the opening of the new Broadway production of Terrence McNally's Master Class.

So how many cliches have playwrights, librettists, and lyricists given the world -- or taken from it?

So how many cliches have playwrights, librettists, and lyricists given the world -- or taken from it?

This week's column examines the new-to-CD original cast album of the 1966 musical A Time for Singing, along with digital releases of the 1962 Bravo Giovanni and the 1963 studio cast album of the Weill-Gershwin Lady in the Dark.

This week's column examines the new-to-CD original cast album of the 1966 musical A Time for Singing, along with digital releases of the 1962 Bravo Giovanni and the 1963 studio cast album of the Weill-Gershwin Lady in the Dark.

The Pulitzer Prize and Tony–winning Clybourne Park opens on Broadway in 2012.

This week's column discusses the musical significance of the newly reissued Schwartz & Dietz musical from 1961, The Gay Life.

This week's column discusses the musical significance of the newly reissued Schwartz & Dietz musical from 1961, The Gay Life.

Institution" is too clinical a word to describe the singer and actress Barbara Cook, whose journey from Broadway ingenue in the 1950s and '60s to mellow cabaret singer in 2000 has earned her consistent praise from critics and fans. "Legend" suits her better. What's made her legendary over the years is not just the clarion voice — at 73, she still hits the B natural singing "Ice Cream" in her current cabaret evening at Feinstein's at the Regency in Manhattan — but her association with some of the great American theatre songwriters: Leonard Bernstein (Candide), Rodgers and Hammerstein (revivals of Oklahoma!, The King and I and Carousel), Dietz and Schwartz (The Gay Life), Bock and Harnick (She Loves Me), Sondheim (the 1980s concert staging of Follies) and, of course, Meredith Willson (The Music Man). For merely introducing such songs as "Glitter and Be Gay," "Till There Was You," "My White Knight," "Ice Cream" and "Dear Friend," she is known as one of the major talents of the 20th century. On the edge of the 21st century, her new Sondheim themed act with longtime musical director Wally Harper continues to Nov. 25 at Feinstein's. She plays a New Year's Eve gig at the Geary Theatre in San Francisco, and she returns to Carnegie Hall in February 2001. She talked to Playbill On-Line about the magic moments then, and now.

From the Special Tony Playbill

Additional casting has been announced for the revised revival of the musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever starring Harry Connick Jr., which will begin previews at Broadway's St. James Theatre Nov. 12 toward a Dec. 11 opening.

The controversial play Corpus Christi debuted in both London and California over the past several days, and the resulting brouhaha added up to a horrendous week for playwright Terrence McNally. The California opening of the drama, at Santa Ana's Rude Guerilla Company, was greeted with hate mail and threats of protest, an echo of the firestorm which surrounded the 1998 Off-Broadway run of the play, which depicts a gay Christ-like figure. That was nothing, however, compared to the reaction the London staging elicited. Shortly after the opening at Pleasance Theatre, an Islamic splinter group, the Shari' Ah Court, issued a Fatwa against McNally. Sheik Omar Bakri Muhammed, the Court's Judge, said the Fatwa was declared so that "those who are insulting to Allah and his messengers must learn that it is a crime."

The controversial play Corpus Christi debuted in both London and California over the past several days, and the resulting brouhaha added up to a horrendous week for playwright Terrence McNally. The California opening of the drama, at Santa Ana's Rude Guerilla Company, was greeted with hate mail and threats of protest, an echo of the firestorm which surrounded the 1998 Off-Broadway run of the play, which depicts a gay Christ-like figure. That was nothing, however, compared to the reaction the London staging elicited. Shortly after the opening at Pleasance Theatre, an Islamic splinter group, the Shari' Ah Court, issued a Fatwa against McNally. Sheik Omar Bakri Muhammed, the Court's Judge, said the Fatwa was declared so that "those who are insulting to Allah and his messengers must learn that it is a crime."

In 2006, Raúl Esparza stars in a John Doyle-helmed actor-musician revival of Company.

Youth must be served — but a Broadway musical? That's right, Mr. Ripley. Believe it or not, a rambunctious quartet of mid-20-somethings laid siege to Circle in the Square's stage on the Sixth of May and established their own Broadway beachhead.