1,448 stories by "Peter Filichia"
By Peter Filichia --
Two hundred years ago this week, a star was born.
Edmund Kean was a journeyman actor until January 26, 1814. On that night, he played Shylock at the Drury Lane, London…
When we last left Nate Foster, we didn't want to. Tens of thousands who read Tim Federle's young adult novel Better Nate Than Ever immediately fell in love with the thirteen-year-old native …
The most fascinating letter replicated in the recently published The Leonard Bernstein Letters isn't one solely by Leonard Bernstein.
The undated letter " suspected by editor Nigel Simeone …
Sitting in the Upper Elementary School in Moorestown, New Jersey, I'm looking forward to the audience reaction when the lights come up at a certain moment in Scene Four. The Moorestown Theat…
In 1956, long before comic strip icons Superman, Charlie Brown and Annie became lead characters in Broadway musicals, there was Li'l Abner.
Al Capp's famed comic strip about the rustic inha…
Whenever someone has asked me the question, "If you could have as a dinner companion anyone who's ever lived, who would it be?" my answer has always been "Thornton Wilder. I'd love to chat w…
Every now and then, I come across them.
I'm talking about the intense musical theater fans who tell me that they hate Hello, Dolly!
And yes, "hate" is the verb they gleefully use.
Last Jan…
Adults have differing opinions on politics, religion, sex, money and virtually everything else, but there's one aspect of life on which they all agree. Time passes oh-so-swiftly and much-too…
How often does your phone ring anymore? We all seem to communicate differently now. Go away for a week's vacation, and you'll probably come back to fewer than a half-dozen messages on your a…
Here is the jackpot question in advance.
Musically speaking, what are you doing New Year's Eve at the party you're hosting?
A young friend excitedly told me that he planned to take many of…
You may know the song entitled "The Story of My Life" from SHREK, but do you know the musical called THE STORY OF MY LIFE? It has nothing to do with Pinocchio, Peter Pan or Papa Bear, as Jea…
"It was one of the best times I've had in my life," said my girlfriend. She'd just got off the annual Turner Classic Movies Classic Cruise.
Of all the musicals that have been nominated for Best Musical, only one has been Christmas-centric:
A Christmas Story: The Musical.
Yes, Tony-winners Annie and Rent as well as Tony-nominee…
When you mount a musical, you needn't slavishly follow a Broadway's production's template. In fact, some of the best subsequent productions of musicals have varied widely from the Broadway o…
As I write this, there are 12 days to Christmas. And if you're one of those Christmas shoppers who is still wondering what to get your friends, relatives and colleagues, I have a few suggest…
When was the last time that you really listened to The Sound of Music?
Musical theater enthusiasts tend to avoid mega-hits. We played them so much when we first came to know them, after we'd…
Listening to the fetching LOST BROADWAY AND MORE: VOLUME 5, I was reminded of that famous expression that Jule Styne was fond of quoting: "Musicals aren't written; they're rewritten."
It's a long-held theory that people who are good at math are also good in music. So why not a musical about math? Many people are responsible for one aimed at the K-to-Grade Four set. It's T…
Did you miss A Bed and a Chair: A New York Love Affair? It was the Stephen Sondheim-Wynton Marsalis revue that played City Center a few weeks ago.
That's all right. Not being able to make i…
It was the month that SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK finally announced its long-anticipated closing. Considering that we don't have access to the financial records, we'll take at face value t…
Even those super-intellectual students at Harvard University have been known to say on their rare off-hours "Hey, kids! Let's put on a show!" And so, an intrepid band of undergrads got toget…
Don't let December 1 go by without celebrating the 100th birthday of one of Broadway's favorite stars.
"Mary Martin" sounds as if it's a stage name, doesn't it? In fact, it's the actual na…
"Well, Spider-Man's initials are S & M ..." That's how I began my sit-down with Glen Berger at the Drama Book Shop last week. Berger co-authored SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK -- first with J…
The Pennsylvania Players certainly got the timing right. Just before the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, the troupe presented Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman…
"Fifty years from now, they'll still be arguing about the grassy knoll, the Mafia, some Cuban crouched behind a stockade fence."
The lines come from a surreal scene in Assassins. Twenty-sev…
