1,448 stories by "Peter Filichia"
F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said that "There are no second acts in American lives." For many of us, there are no second acts when we listen to original cast albums.
We get up in the mornin…
Mary Pope Osborne, the esteemed children's writer, was looking for an idea. What would be a good book for kids aged six-to-nine who were currently in grades one-to-four? Then inspiration hit…
On the night of Sept, 26, 1960, was Arnold Auerbach gritting his teeth, shaking his head and thinking BLESS YOU ALL?
I suspect he was, as he watched, with 70 million other Americans, the …
As of June 25, 2013, the world was divided into two parts.
One part consisted of people who couldn't wait to read Shirley Jones: A Memoir. They wanted to know everything the actress was wil…
Last week, while reviewing LES MISERABLES SCHOOL EDITION, I suggested that producing the British mega-hit may lead to one unexpected benefit. It may be a logical successor to WEST SIDE STORY…
Memo to all the young people who saw LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST at the Delacorte and adored it: the reasons you adored it were among the 1971-72 Tony voters' motivation for choosing TWO GENTLEMEN …
Some of you may have noticed that I did a column on August's minor holidays the first and second weeks of the month " but haven't done one since.
Why?
I took a holiday.
But here we are wi…
Think you can cut the mustard to be part of the incoming frosh class at Broadway University?
Was Jerry Herman subtly trying to tell us something in La Cage aux Folles?
Note that he saved "The Best of Times (Is Now)" as his eleven o'clock number. No one knew it at the time, but it w…
There have been thousands upon thousands of T-shirts made for hundreds upon hundreds of productions of SEUSSICAL. But each one for sale in this lobby has a unique logo in its upper right han…
No, it's not the 1963 musical version. But did you ever think you'd see a production of the play TOVARICH?
Do you know the term "pentimento"? Many of us didn't until we read Lillian Hellman's first memoir, in which she used the word as her title.
"Pentimento," she taught us, was the result of a…
"I can give my subscribers one maverick show a season," says Music Theatre of Wichita producing artistic director Wayne Bryan. "Two could overwhelm them. But they seem to trust me enough to …
July got off to a great start at the Minskoff Theatre where 31 boys and 31 girls competed for The National High School Musical Theatre Awards - more chummily known as "The Jimmys" (for James…
I came late to Jackie Hoffman's party, and I'm so sorry I did. Oh, I did arrive at 54 Below in time for her 9:30 p.m. show this past Sunday - which was good, because it began precisely on th…
Music Theatre International founder Frank Loesser once wrote a song called "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" Now Music Theatre International and iTheatrics are asking middle school teache…
Last week I pointed out that August doesn't have any major holidays, but it does have some minor ones. Here's hoping that my reminding you of Sisters' Day -- the first Sunday of the month " …
Most assume that it's nothing more than a feel-good, happy-go-lucky, fun-filled musical comedy. That novelist Amanda Brown even played on the expression "legally blind" to come up with her t…
We're about to begin the one month of the year that doesn't have a big holiday.
But at least August contains days that have been chosen as commemoratives. One such is Sisters' Day, which mi…
Last week, when I wrote about the cast album of Seven Come Eleven, I stressed its topicality. The 1961 nightclub revue mentioned The Peppermint Lounge, the Peace Corps, Mayor Wagner, civil r…
Why must two-and-a-half hours pass before Ephraim Levi sends a sign to his widow Dolly that says he'll permit her remarriage? Now I finally understand. He doesn't need time to adjust to the …
There have been knock-knock jokes, ethnic jokes, and how many light-bulb jokes. But 50 years ago, the joke that was sweeping the country was the Tom Swifty.
At the recent American Association of Community Theatre Festival in Carmel, Indiana, 12 companies ranging from Burlington, Massachusetts to Chula Vista, California came to show their wares. …
Decades ago, I vowed to obtain each and every original cast album. That meant searching second-hand dives and thrift shops and making many clandestine trips downstairs to dingy basements in …
So on July tenth, we'll celebrate Jerry Herman's eighty-fourth birthday.
And what do we immediately think of when we think of Jerry Herman?
Title songs, of course.
Herman's first four Bro…
