1,448 stories by "Peter Filichia"
In Paul Rudnick’s wonderfully witty Regrets Only, he creates a scenario where gays are furious about a proposed amendment to the consitution that will deny them the right to marry. The…
Christine Lakin, left, and Beth Malone star onstage in "œThe Breakup Notebook." Everyone who's ever been dumped " and doesn't that include all of us? " is going to…
Scout's honor Remember Scout from "To Kill a Mockingbird"? Of course you do " be it from reading Harper Lee's classic novel or seeing the famed 1962 film version. In the latter, 10-year-old …
Do we have the Beatles to thank -- or blame-- for John Doyle’s concept of having actors play instruments in musicals? The director actually thought of the convention in the early &lsqu…
By Peter Filichia --
We might not have had Avenue Q, A Chorus Line, Nine, Once on This Island and Ragtime and plenty of other excellent musicals without him.
He was Lehman Engel, who was t…
At this time of year, I always think of Jeffrey Landman, an actor whom I’ve admired since he was a kid. We met in 1993, when he performed at a press event for Ahrens and Menken’s…
Roy GroethingLiz Wisan left, cradles Kayla Maisonet in the Premiere Stages production of the new drama, "Hannah." It's one of the most poignant moments that the New Jersey stage ha…
Michael Cumpsty will play Benedick at Two River Theater Company No, Michael Cumpsty didn't moan when he heard the news. Of course, he was thrilled when his life partner John Dias was named t…
A theater, a television special, a DVD and a book. There’s still plenty going on for a man who was born when Abie’s Irish Rose was Broadway’s longest-running show and Herbe…
“She was ahead of her time for nine decades,” wrote Rex Reed. “She was our Holden Caulfield,” said Marie Brenner. Liza Minnelli declared that she “conquered eve…
On Wednesday, I told about Sam Irvin’s magnificent new biography: Kay Thompson from Funny Face to Eloise. If you’re unaware of this terrific biographer -- and/or the dynamic comp…
Like so many of us, Mark Winkler doesn’t like jukebox musicals, either. So seven years ago, when his pal Larry Dean Harris offered to create a musical from his 10 albums worth of jazz …
Family members talk about Sept. 11, 10 years after the event, in the new play, “Sweet and Sad,†in New York. On Sept. 11, 2001, all theaters went dark in New Jersey a…
FILE PHOTOJane Krakowski Homecoming queen Jane Krakowski will return to her Jersey roots and do a concert: "An Evening With Jane Krakowski" plays Oct. 1 at Enlow Recital Hall, 215 North Ave.…
Siouxsie Suarez From left, Jen Ring, John P. Keller and Kiley Oram in the William Shakespeare comedy, "A Midsummer Night's Dream." People are always complaining about the price of …
So I just heard the closing number from Rebecca, and it's terrific. All right, it's not the finale of the musical version that's been promised for Broadway next spring. Instead, it's the ope…
The plastics are up at the Neil Simon Theatre, which always makes an incoming show seem more official: Ragtime begins previews Oct. 23, and officially opens on Nov. 15. And to think that the…
Marian Seldes made a good point on Monday night. Well, I’m sure Marian Seldes makes a good point every morning, noon, afternoon, and night -- but the one she made on September 21 at Sa…
When I was speaking to a young musical theater enthusiast the other day, she suddenly mused, “You know, I’ve never heard that song that became ‘You’ll Never Get away …
It all started in rural Illinois when she was three. “My great aunt was a honky-tonk pianist,” says Marianne Challis. “And soon I was in front of people singing ‘Twen…
When you watch a video or DVD at home, do you routinely press the subtitles button? I do – and not because I have any particular hearing deficiency. I just like to see how subtitlers i…
Well, we made it to the New Year. The worst any of our tombstones will state as our death date is 2011. Will it be the year that Perfect Crime finally dies, too? On Jan. 5, it hits its 9,700…
By Peter Filichia --
There are many wonderful aspects to the "40th Anniversary Celebration" of Godspell. How often is an original cast album (of the landmark 1971 off-Broadway production) o…
When speaking to Thomas McCormack, I suddenly thought about my favorite moment in Moss Hart’s Act One. It took place in 1929, when Hart was then a nobody who’d only written a pla…
Joe GeinertThe Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey ushers in the fall portion of its 2011 season with the Bard’s take of implacable jealousy, “Othello,†fe…
