484 stories from Masterworks Broadway
Peter Filichia --
Hats off! Here they come, those beautiful girls who did very well by their musicals.
But they nevertheless didn't receive Best Actress in a Musical Tony nominations.
…
By Peter Filichia --
Here's the second of five columns dealing with notable omissions in Tony categories.
Last week, I took a look at the women who weren't nominated for the Best Featured…
By Peter Filichia --
Been busy the last week? Of course you have, with all the e-mailing, texting and " last and now least " phoning you've done to many friends and relatives.
The subject…
By Peter Filichia --
Tra-la! It's May! The lusty month, as Queen Guenevere once taught us in Camelot. When the last day of April concludes, many of us find this marvelous musical theater s…
By Peter Filichia --
She wrote a play called Happy Birthday, so why shouldn't we wish her one?
Granted, Anita Loos, born April 26, 1888, is no longer with us. For that matter, Happy Birth…
By Peter Filichia "
Florence Henderson may be known as Carol Brady to millions upon millions, but to those of us who follow Broadway, she'll always be the leading lady of four musicals that…
By Peter Filichia --
Julie Andrews played Maria von Trapp on stage two years before she started filming The Sound of Music.
Well, at least in a manner of speaking. Andrews actually portr…
By Peter Filichia "-
Liza Minnelli certainly started off 1974 with a bang.
Not that 1973 was so bad. On March 27 of that year, Minnelli became the youngest performer to have won a Best A…
By Peter Filichia "
So it was 50 years ago last week that Barbra Streisand made her first dynamic splash " when she opened on March 22, 1962 in I Can Get It for You Wholesale.
In Jerome W…
By Peter Filichia --
Broadway overtures certainly let you know early on what The Expected Hit Ballad will be. Usually, after a rousing fanfare that previews The Most Stirring Songs, everyth…
By Peter Filichia "
When the members of the Oscar committee first met in 2008 to discuss possible Best Song nominations for the 2007 film year, many felt that "Falling Slowly" from Once sho…
By Peter Filichia --
Hundreds of record albums have been dedicated to Broadway musicals. Thousands have been sung by Broadway performers. But until October 1, 1964, there had never been a …
By Peter Filichia --
This week, when February 29 comes into our lives, we're most aware that we're in a Leap Year. So let's have a Leap Year's look at cast albums.
We must start in 1944,…
By Peter Filichia --
These days, we often hear people complain that too many Broadway musicals are made from motion pictures. Actually, the start of that trend can be traced backed to 1953…
By Peter Filichia --
Many of us spent last week looking for the perfect Valentine's Day cards to give to our beloveds.
Some of us bought cards with puffy embossed hearts in the middle. …
By Peter Filichia --
I received a nice e-mail from Elliot J. Cohen, who'd read my "A Tale of Three Dollys" a few weeks ago. In it, I wondered why Carol Channing on the original Broadway c…
February is, of course, Black History Month. So celebrate each day by playing an African-American's performance from different cast albums.
We have plenty to choose from. Black entertainer…
By Peter Filichia "
A Thurber Carnival, the original cast album that Masterworks Broadway is re-issuing this week, could just as easily be called A Character Actors' Carnival.
If you're …
By Peter Filichia --
Dolly Gallagher Levi has certainly kept her promise. For nearly half a century, she's been telling us that "Dolly'll never go away again"-- and she hasn't, not since H…
By Peter Filichia --
This month's Friday the 13th can be considered both lucky and unlucky for Broadway. It would have marked the 87th birthday of Gwen Verdon, and we're all pretty sad that …
By Peter Filichia "
So what was the first recording in 2012 that you chose for your listening pleasure?
For the twentieth straight year, I started New Year's Day by playing the CD that I…
By Peter Filichia --
As that famous Frank Loesser song asked, "Here is the jackpot question in advance: what are you doing New Year's Eve?"
Most will party, but many know that it's a goo…
Peter Filichia "
So what would be the most logical Broadway musical to open on Christmas Day?
Why, Here's Love, right? After all, it's the musical of Miracle on 34th Street.
But Here's…
By Peter Filichia --
You're in the middle of holiday shopping. You want to get something nice for that couple next door and their toddler. But you don't have much do-re-mi.
For the adult…
By Peter Filichia "
In my recent book Broadway Musical MVPs, 1960-2010, I gave awards that baseball annually bestows but theater doesn't: Most Valuable Player, Comeback Player of the Year …
