Harold Prince, who directed the musical, recalled in an interview Tuesday that Ms. Haworth was remarkably steadfast and mature after the drubbing.
A few pulled their money out of that Broadway-bound musical, recalled one of its lead producers, Kathleen Raitt, while others dropped from a $250,000 to a $25,000 commitment.
He picked up the guitar when he was 8 ("He was always very musical," recalls his mother, Hope Zanes Butterworth, a photographer and divorced mother who reared Zanes and his brother and sister) and began checking out old Leadbelly records as soon as he had a library card.
In a videotaped message, the Obamas paid tribute to the blockbuster musical, recalling how composer and star Lin-Manuel Miranda had performed a piece from what would become "Hamilton" for them seven years ago.
My friend Richard Adler, who wrote the words and music to The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees, two of America's greatest Broadway musicals, recalled in his memoir, You Gotta Have Heart, his affair with a famous actress in the 1950's.
"The Boys From Syracuse" was the first musical ever based on Shakespeare, and Mr. Fink said that Mr. Rodgers, in his 1975 autobiography "Musical Stages," recalled a conversation he had had with Mr. Hart on a train to Atlantic City about what their new venture should be.
"I was, like, This is a musical!" he recalled.
"I said to myself, 'You know, this has many of the key ingredients of a musical,' " he recalled.
"We shared the same geeky enthusiasm for musical theater," recalled Ms. Dewing, who was living with her mother in Scotland, Md., at the time.
In one case, a recall number for a toy musical instrument recalled by Imaginarium, a specialty toy store chain bought by Toys R UsUs in 1999, was taken over by another business.
Of her now-legendary role in the 1996 revival of "Chicago," which nabbed the star her second Tony Award and recently became Broadway's third-longest running musical, Neuwirth recalled, "It was a mystical experience.
