484 stories from Masterworks Broadway
So you think that the first "so-bad-it's-good" musical was The Rocky Horror Show?
A case can be made for a very different property: Say, Darling.
Truth to tell, Say, Darling was less of a …
My buddy Ingrid Gammerman has told me that she does it. So has my pal Donald Tesione. On occasion, I've done it, too.
That is, play a cast album on the precise night of an all-star concert …
On Wednesday, April 8, 1964, Variety told me that Anyone Can Whistle had opened the previous Saturday to three raves and three pans. I'd never seen such an extreme split from the New York ne…
Were you among the many who'd planned to go see Betty Buckley do Dear World in London " only to find the show had shuttered earlier than expected?
"I'm not surprised," says my buddy Steven…
Have you been wondering why the National Collegiate Athletic Association nicknames its annual basketball tournament "March Madness" when the tournament heats up in April? Or why CBS calls it…
While basketball fans of Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland are moaning and mourning that their team didn't make the 68-team NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament " and adherents of the chosen Boise…
Next Sunday, the National Collegiate Athletic Association's "March Madness" will officially begin. We'll know which sixty-eight teams will play for the 2013 NCAA's men's basketball champions…
As I wrote last week, if college basketball can have "March Madness," so can musical theater.
My column of February 26 stated that aficionados should spend March going delightfully mad. Eac…
And here it comes: that annual sporting event that's unashamedly come to be known as "March Madness."
Much of the country will be watching to see which college basketball teams will be part…
It's one of those Tony-winning musicals that doesn't get done very often " and certainly not enough.
But sharp director John Simpkins decided that his students at NYU Steinhardt could do Ci…
Here's hoping that you can make it to New York this month and next to see the York Theatre Company's four "Musicals in Mufti."
Starting this weekend, Mufti " which does readings of musicals…
It's only played a handful of previews thus far, but I'm hearing wonderful word-of-mouth about the new production of Cinderella at the Broadway Theatre.
The score alone would suggest succes…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is one of the world's greatest novels.
Its reputation began two hundred years ago this week, when Austen's book…
Each of us has experienced it. Life is going along merrily, and then suddenly you gasp for breath.
That's when you remember that you'd forgotten an important anniversary. You rush to a stor…
Have there been twelve musical versions of Twelfth Night? Perhaps not, but I count at least seven that have seen the light of New York stages: Love and Let Love (1967); Music Is (1976); Pla…
Celebrating a new release of the Bye Bye Birdie soundtrack is certainly delightful. Some, however, may moan when they realize the occasion is the fiftieth anniversary of the original release…
Before the year comes to an official end, let's remember some of the artists that we lost this year.
While they aren't with us any longer, there is a consolation: we can still hear them on …
On December 21 -- which is the shortest day of the year in terms of daylight " why not play "The Shortest Day of the Year"?
It's the song that can be found about halfway through The Boys fr…
By Peter Filichia --
It's been more than ten years since I had a certain conversation with Michael Kunze, but I remember it as if it were yesterday.
Kunze was in New York because the music…
By Peter Filichia --
A few weeks ago, we talked about the 25-disc "Broadway in a Box" set as a holiday present for newcomers to musical theater. If that's a little too rich for your blood, …
By Peter Filichia --
If you're quite familiar with the 1966 original Broadway cast album of Cabaret, two lyrics are going to jump out at you when you listen to the 1968 original London cas…
By Peter Filichia --
"Judi sings her way to a hit!"
So said the critic for the London Daily Mirror on Leap Year Day, 1968. The Judi in question, as I don't have to inform any musical th…
By Peter Filichia --
At one point during my listening to the terrific reissue of the 1968 original London cast album of Cabaret, I suddenly thought of Gladys Troupin.
She was the pianist…
By Peter Filichia --
When friends start discussing musical theater "charm songs" -- and believe me, in my circle, we do -- the usual masterpieces are mentioned. "Getting to Know You" from …
By Peter Filichia --
What a delightful surprise! Pump Boys and Dinettes is returning to Broadway next spring " 31 years after the original production's debut.
Doesn't that number of ye…
