1,448 stories by "Peter Filichia"
Mama Morton and Velma Kelly have been wondering “Whatever happened to class?” for some time now. If they saw The Drunkard at the Metropolitan Playhouse, they’d really be sc…
Had a good time reading Mark Griffin’s very well-written and researched A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minnelli. How nice to know more about such films…
If you’ve seen the 1942 movie of Panama Hattie, you haven’t really seen Panama Hattie.
And if you’ve seen the 1954 TV adaptation of Panama Hattie, you haven’t really…
By Peter Filichia --
May 10 marks the 112th birthday of the show business celebrity who's been named in probably more theater songs than anyone else.
All right, I haven't done a concerted …
A couple of months ago, I met a nice young man who was starting a theater company. "What are you doing for your first production?" I asked. His answer surprised me. It was a famous…
One of these days, Rachel Sheinkin will get a good night's sleep. But right now, she's a little too busy to snooze " for she's working on a show about a most attractive woman who has been as…
As Roxie says in her title song in Chicago, “I hope this ain’t too crude” – but really: when you get up in the morning, don’t you first and foremost start walki…
There's plenty of excitement down at the Two River Theater Company in Red Bank. "In a way," said artistic director John Dias, "two people working here now got Tony nominations on Tuesday." O…
The Theater Project Bliss Griffin and Michael Flood in "The African Company Presents Richard III." What a cruel irony. The Theatre Project, whose lease at Union County College isn'…
It’s the most wonderful time of the year for theater fans who can now cheer, rejoice and offer their congratulations to the many Tony nominees. Seems to me, however, that more theater …
I'll never forget the day I was at a big musical theater exhibit at the Lincoln Center Library of the Performing Arts. To enhance our experience, the sound system was playing selections from…
It was the month that the Delaware Theatre Company did a musical called Chasin’ De Blues, subtitled “The Untold Story of Paramount Records.” I wonder what songs they includ…
There’s a moment deep in Baby, It's You! when The Shirelles are performing in a club in a certain city. They then disappear behind a mylar curtain as an announcer sets up their next en…
Many of us only appreciated the buildings after 9/11 took them away from us. Gifted playwright Matt Schatz, however, allows us to value them on a different level. He shows us the intense des…
In "The Godfather: Part Two," he famously said, "I don't feel I have to wipe everybody out " just my enemies." So worry not, Al Pacino fans " especially those who are in their fourth decade …
Have you heard the news? There's going to be a frightfully enormous earthquake on May 21 that's going to throw the entire planet into cataclysm. The world will soldier on for a while, but wi…
It's a dizzying script, one that asks the tough question: are relationships built on truth or destroyed by it?
By Peter Filichia
It opened on April 11, 1936, and MasterworksBroadway is celebrating its 75th anniversary in style. It's made the first-ever recording of On Your Toes again available.
On…
Said Mike Canestraro, “Grease. What a piece of shit. And you may quote me.” Well, I just did, Mike – although I should point out that Mike didn’t just say this out of…
It’s been a trend of late: shows that originated and made their reputations off-Broadway are years later revived as new productions on Broadway. Since 2000, I count 12, including music…
So how does a boy from Glencoe, Illinois wind up producing and directing every play by George Bernard Shaw? All right, David Staller hasn’t directed full productions of all 65 of GBS&r…
By Peter Filichia --
I know, I know. You've o.d.'d on Annie. In fact, you o.d.'d on it long ago. That's what happens when a musical becomes a smash hit and never for a second leaves the pub…
Suddenly during the first act of Wonderland, the thought hit me. Would this be Stephen Sondheim's favorite musical of the season? I'll grant you that that seems an unlikely scenario. The Fra…
And to think it all started because he simply wanted to watch a Sidney Poitier movie.
Want to be a Broadway Star? Well, you can be, albeit vicariously, through a marvelous new board game that’s boldly called Be a Broadway Star. It’s the brainchild of Ken Davenport…
