Tuesday, May 23, 2023

The Tom Swifty Goes Broadway By Peter Filichia

There have been knock-knock jokes, practical jokes and light-bulb jokes. But 60 years ago, the joke that was sweeping the country was the Tom Swifty. Never heard of it? Let your youth be you…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, May 16, 2023

CHITA AND HER ACHIEVEMENTS By Peter Filichia

What does Chita Rivera not have in common with Jean Hersholt, Isabelle Stevenson and Irving G. Thalberg? She didn’t have to die to get an award named for her. Next week, choreographers and…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, May 9, 2023

The World Is SHUCKED’s Oyster By Peter Filichia

What started out as a musical variation on HEE-HAW has had the last laugh. SHUCKED was originally inspired by that erstwhile TV series that’s been rarely off the air since its 1969 debut. …

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, May 2, 2023

SWEENEY TODD: 1979 VS. 2023 By Peter Filichia

Wait a minute! Where’s “Johanna”?!? Those who attend the current Broadway revival of SWEENEY TODD and are familiar with the score will miss one of the three songs that happen to have t…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, April 25, 2023

FOLLOWING CAMELOT By Peter Filichia

Who knew that “Follow Me” had so many fans? But since Aaron Sorkin’s revisal of CAMELOT started previews at the Vivian Beaumont on March 9, friends have been calling me to complain. �…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, April 18, 2023

A FINE ROMANCE WITH SILK STOCKINGS By Peter Filichia

Can you picture Alfred Hitchcock singing and dancing? In A FINE ROMANCE, Geoffrey Block’s excellent new book from Oxford University Press, he mentions that director Rouben Mamoulian actual…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, April 11, 2023

UP WITH THE SUN AND MUSICALS, TOO By Peter Filichia

Sometimes we breeze past an “Author’s Note” because we’re so anxious to get to the meat of a book. Don’t do that with Thomas Mallon’s new 337-page tome. “UP WITH THE SUN,” he…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, April 4, 2023

KPOP MUSIC By Peter Filichia

Is KPOP the first cast album in which the booklet’s lyrics are printed in Korean? No. With all the American musicals that have proliferated and profited in South Korea – EVITA and MAN OF…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, March 28, 2023

ALMOUS FAMOUS IS NOT FLEETING By Peter Filichia

And now for a very different homage to a 50th anniversary. Much has been made here in recent weeks of some great 1973 events in musical theater. Two involved a certain composer-lyricist whos…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, March 21, 2023

SONDHEIM: A MUSICAL TRIBUTE By Peter Filichia

I don’t remember exactly where I was on March 11, 1973, but I certainly know where I wasn’t. Alas, you wouldn’t have found me at the Shubert Theatre in New York where SONDHEIM: A MUSIC…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, March 14, 2023

VINYL TAP By Peter Filichia

My turntable is spinning again. Recent vinyl reissues of some vintage cast albums and vinyl debuts of some new ones have me dropping a tone arm and stylus – the fancy term for needle – o…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, March 7, 2023

THE “SEND IN THE CLOWNS” MUSICAL TURNS 50

By Peter Filichia Perhaps it would have been a musical in which such words as “domineering” and such phrases as “Dear Frederick” would have appeared. Midnight would have been a signi…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, February 28, 2023

A PAIR OF PARADES By Peter Filichia 

Last November, Jim Vagias had to be a little worried. Earlier in 2022, Vagias, the producing artistic director of American Theater Group, had arranged with Music Theatre International to pro…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, February 21, 2023

BACHARACH’S PROMISES, PROMISES: ONE SINGULAR SENSATION By Peter Filichia

Well, at least he gave us one musical. Neil Hefti didn’t. Billy Joel hasn’t. Ditto Bruce Springsteen. But Burt Bacharach, who worked in the same pop arena as they, did in 1968. He and Ha…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 07:45AM
Tuesday, February 14, 2023

IF GENDER-NEUTRAL TONYS HAD ALWAYS BEEN IN PLACE… By Peter Filichia

Maybe it should have happened years ago, when newspapers made the change. For there was a time when those looking for jobs saw classified ads that said “Help Wanted – Men” and “Help …

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, February 7, 2023

SONDHEIM DESERVED A BETTER FINALE By Peter Filichia

If you’re in a bridge tournament and play a Jack – only to see your opponent put a King on the table – you may hear the trick-taker say, “Don’t send a boy out to do a man’s job.�…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, January 31, 2023

LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE ORCHESTRATORS By Peter Filichia

This must be unprecedented. Visit the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on West 46th Street, and you may be equally astonished. The signage is up for the upcoming revival of SWEENEY TODD, the show’s t…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, January 24, 2023

FUNNY GIRL: WHAT A RELIEF! By Peter Filichia

In baseball, whenever a pitcher becomes tired and ineffective, a new pitcher known as a reliever succeeds him, in order to prevent further damage. The one who does this most consistently wil…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, January 17, 2023

WELCOME TO PACIFIC OVERTURES By Peter Filichia

Devoted musical theater aficionados know that the nine-performance ANYONE CAN WHISTLE was Stephen Sondheim’s shortest-running show. They can also tell you that MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, despi…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, January 10, 2023

MATILDA: SMART KID, SMART FILM By Peter Filichia

Why are there such babyish voices on “Miracle”? If you haven’t yet seen the excellent feature film of ROALD DAHL’S MATILDA THE MUSICAL – but know the original cast album – this m…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, January 3, 2023

MERRILY ROLLING AGAIN, ROLLING AGAIN By Peter Filichia

After the end of each song, no theatergoer shouted “Whooo!” None of the performers held a note for an inordinately long length of time, so no attendee was moved to scream at the halfway …

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 10:48AM
Tuesday, December 27, 2022

THERE IS ALWAYS LITTLE ME By Peter Filichia

In a used bookshop in Morristown, New Jersey, I sauntered by the magazine section and gave out with a smile. Considering that the Life magazine that topped the pile was over 60 years old, it…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, December 20, 2022

NINA HIRSCHFELD’S FATHER’S NEWEST COLLECTION By Peter Filichia

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many does an Al Hirschfeld caricature rate? On the other hand, you may be speechless and offer none, after strolling through Memory Lane (and Shub…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 10:14AM
Tuesday, December 13, 2022

BEAU GOES TO THE MOVIES By Peter Filichia

Has this ever happened before? A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that YOUR OWN THING was the first off-Broadway musical to be optioned and sold for a film that was never made. But here’s …

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, December 6, 2022

BROADWAY IS MUSEUM QUALITY By Peter Filichia

No, it doesn’t offer quite a lotta Roman terra cotta or livin’ lava from the flanks of Etna that the eponymous title character of BARNUM had promised you. However, the Museum of Broadwa…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, November 29, 2022

DO YOUR OWN THING By Peter Filichia

If you’re attending that musical version of TWELFTH NIGHT on December 12, you can forget about seeing Malvolio and Sir Toby Belch. When Donald Driver, Hal Hester and Danny Apolinar adapted…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, November 22, 2022

SONDHEIM AND HE: PAUL SALSINI REMINISCES

By Peter Filichia It’s already been a year since we lost Stephen Sondheim, but now we have another way of remembering him. Paul Salsini, who founded The Sondheim Review in 1994 and kept at…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, November 15, 2022

GREEN GREW THE FOOTNOTES ON MARY RODGERS’ SHY By Peter Filichia

So many have asked me “Have you read it?” without even naming the book. I know they mean Mary Rodgers’ SHY. Sure, I have, for I knew Mary. Although I can’t tell you the date on which…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Tuesday, November 8, 2022

YOU’RE STILL GOOD, CHARLIE BROWN By Peter Filichia

You’re a Good Man, Michael Presser. Hail to the founder and executive director of Inside Broadway, now in its 40th year of bringing theater to kids – and kids to the theater. One of Pres…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 06:00AM
Thursday, November 3, 2022

THE CHAPIN DISH: TED CHAPIN REMEMBERS FOLLIES By Peter Filichia

Although many musical theater enthusiasts know that Stephen Sondheim criticized the lyrics of Lorenz Hart and Ira Gershwin, they may not know that he could be just as tough on Ted Chapin’s…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:44AM
Tuesday, October 25, 2022

MR. PRESIDENT AND I

By Peter Filichia Go to Google Maps to locate the Emerson Colonial Theatre on Boylston Street in Boston. Then punch in the Emerson Majestic Theatre on Tremont Street in that selfsame Boston,…

SOURCE: Masterworks Broadway at 11:11AM

All that Chat

2022-2023 BROADWAY SEASON
Nov 27, 2022: KPOP - Circle In The Square