I was born in Los Angeles.  I graduated from UCLA with a degree in music and received a master’s degree in musicology at Cal State University, Los Angeles.   I began teaching music and history in the Montebello Unified School District in 1964.

In 1971, I moved to Schurr High School as the choir teacher and began producing musicals.  For the next 13 years I produced 25 shows, two a year from 1973 to 1984.  Schurr High School was the major musical theater outlet for the people in this East Los Angeles community.   Many youngsters got their first taste of musical theater at Schurr.   In addition to working at Schurr, I served as the musical director for musical productions at Cal. State University, Los Angeles for a few years.

My love for musical theater came easy.  Both my parents and grandparents loved movies as well as musical theater and vaudeville.  Some of my earliest memories deal with musicals.  Before I was six, my grandmother was taking me to vaudeville shows.  My parents would go to a movie at the drop of a hat and instead of a baby sitter, they just took my sister Ann and I to see Betty Grable, Dan Dailey, Judy Garland, et all.  What I missed seeing in the movie theater I saw on that new medium television.  The first professional musicals that I saw were High Button Shoes starring Eddie Foy Jr.  and Mary Martin in the touring company of Annie Get Your Gun.  The first cast album that I remember was Oklahoma on 78 rpm vinyl’s.

My wife Mary Ann and I have been musical theater goers since our marriage in 1967.  We regularly attend shows on Broadway and in London and are regulars in big and small theaters in Southern California, our home.

I have collected cast and studio recordings for years and finally decided to comment shows I have seen and produced.

Welcome to my blog.
David Lebow