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Filichia OCT 14

A SWEET SMELL IS COMING By Peter Filichia

Everything went quiet. This is what came to mind when the concert version of SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS was announced. It’ll play November 21-22 at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall. The announcement took me back to a potent silent moment that had occurred in the 2001-02 Tony Awards’ press room. The upstairs […]

Filichia OCT 7

MUSICALS PUTS THEIR STAMP ON IT! By Peter Filichia

If you want to know the historical details of The Stamp Act Congress that met 260 years ago this week, Google will tell all. For our purposes, though, let’s go far afield to the Broadway-centric stamp acts that have occurred over the decades. The policy of the United States Post Office is to “generally commemorate […]

Filichia Sep 30

PICTURE THIS: HIRSCHFELD AND SONDHEIM By Peter Filichia

This must be a first. What other book celebrates two theater artists, each of whom has a Broadway theater named for him? The Al Hirschfeld Theatre is on 45th Street west of Broadway while The Stephen Sondheim Theatre is on 43rd Street east of Broadway. Where their legendary careers intersected through the years is the […]

Filichia SEP 23

GROVER DALE: A MAN LIKE THAT By Peter Filichia

Although he didn’t sing “A Boy Like That” in WEST SIDE STORY, Grover Dale still chose it as the title of his memoir. He does, after all, have a connection to that landmark musical that opened at the Winter Garden 68 years ago this week. While Chita Rivera was singing “A Boy Like That” to […]

Filichia SEP 17

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Y’ALL! By Peter Filichia

So, according to the records, September 17 is the day of the year on which most people are born. Now that we’re around the 260th day of 2025, let’s celebrate the birthdays on that date of those who have contributed to musical theater in one way or another. “In one way or another” allows us […]

Peter Filichia is the theater critic emeritus for the Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey and News 12 New Jersey.

He is a columnist each Friday for www.mtishows.com and www.kritzerland.com.

Filichia is the author of Let’s Put on a Musical, now in its third printing; Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit of the Season / The Biggest Flop of the Season and Broadway Musical MVPs 1960-2010: The Most Valuable Players of the Last 50 Seasons. His new book, Strippers, Showgirls, and Sharks will be published in May, 2013 by St. Martin’s Press.

He has been a columnist for Playbill, Theater.com, Theatermania and Theater Week.

Before joining the Theatre World Awards in 1996 as host and head of the selection committee, Filichia served four terms as president of the Drama Desk. He has served on an assessment panel for the National Endowment for the Arts, and is currently critic-in-residence for the University of Cincinnati-Conservatory of Music and the musical theater judge for the ASCAP Awards program.