1,448 stories by "Peter Filichia"
Just as some people get their 15 minutes of fame, some comedies get their 15 minutes of laughs before sputtering out. "Private Eyes," now receiving an adequate production at J City Theater, …
Beyond a how-to manual
A childrens' show that is just peachy
Kipling for kids
At 5 feet 5 inches tall, Matt Schatz is only about 1,362 feet shorter than his subject matter. It's the World Trade Center, which at one time was "The Tallest Building in the World." That's …
Here's a challenge for husbands and wives: Arrive home and announce you want to take a vacation alone. Be prepared for "What do you mean?" as well as the inevitable "And what are you going t…
Some years ago, when an editor asked me to write a new edition of Let’s Put on a Musical, he told me to drop 70 shows from my two previous editions and add 70 new musicals. Making…
By Peter Filichia --
All right, it may not be the most significant anniversary in theatrical history. But for the record, 14 years ago this week " on April 16, 1997 -- David Ives's new pla…
As any con man or lawman can tell you, timing is extraordinarily important in his occupation. If the con man is a little tardy in escaping, he might not get away. If the lawman’s late,…
How I love being with an audience that’s seeing a musical for the first time during the show’s second year. It was my pleasure-filled experience on Tuesday night when I saw La Ca…
Me and my big mouth (or, for the grammatically conscious among us, my big mouth and I). On one of the recent podcasts I do most Sundays on Broadway Radio for Broadway Stars, the subject came…
By Peter Filichia --
Well, it's April, which makes me think of Company. Not just because it opened 41 years ago this month. Not just because it has a character named April.
But also, bec…
Some time ago, when I heard that a show called War Horse was going to open in London. I gave out a big smile. This was the same title that my buddy Martin Erskine and I once chose for a musi…
The woman famous for having portrayed Reva Shayne Lewis Cooper Spaulding Lewis in "The Guiding Light" will now be playing a character with far fewer names. Kim Zimmer, the four-time Daytime …
It was the month that I ran into Dick Scanlan on Eighth Avenue and told him that I’d included him in my new book, Broadway Musicals: The Most Valuable Players, 1960-2010. Well, wouldn&…
Who pays attention to a 1945 Broadway musical with a Sigmund Romberg-Dorothy Fields score? Musicals Tonight! producer Mel Miller, that’s who. His last foray of the 2010-2011 season is …
What, no mistaken identity?
That's the only element of farce that Ken Ludwig has omitted in his extraordinarily funny "The Fox on the Fairway." Fans of slamming doors and double-entendres h…
By Peter Filichia --
We can't let March go by without celebrating the anniversary of one of the greatest musicals of all time. Fifty-five years ago this month, My Fair Lady opened.
If …
Every business keeps a ledger of debits and credits. Shall we count each in the current revival of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying? Director-choreographer Rob Ashford has de…
March 8, 1979. My buddy Richard Norton and I are discussing the theater news of the day when he off-handedly mentions, “I hear the new musical at Playwrights Horizons is pretty good.&r…
Either the voice-over narrator at the beginning of The Book of Mormon is pre-recorded or he’s an actor with lousy timing. More than once, after an on-stage Mormon responded to somethin…
By Peter Filichia --
How many rock musicals begin with a waltz?
All right, the song that starts Inner City will never be confused with a Strauss waltz. It's a jazz waltz, but it's in …
Broadway may not be in a Golden Age, but it's certainly in a Golden Age of Drag. In that last decade, eight men who'd played at least one scene in a dress received a Tony nomination for eith…
