QUEEN OF THE THEATRE By Peter Filichia
This week marks the birthday of someone who was as interested in theater as we are. Not musical theater, no, because that art form hadn’t yet been born when Queen Elizabeth I of England was on September 7, 1533. But as we approach the 486th anniversary of her coming into the world, let’s celebrate this […]
AND THE 1946-47 TONY FOR BEST SCORE GOES TO… by Peter Filichia
Quick! What score was the first to win a Tony Award? Given that we’re talking about the 1946-47 season, Lerner and Loewe’s BRIGADOON is a good guess. After all, it had three hit songs: “Almost Like Being in Love,” “The Heather on the Hill” and “There but for You Go I.” But it didn’t win. […]
RAMIN KARIMLOO SINGS THEM AS THEY WROTE THEM
Do you know Karimloo’s portmanteau? Need an explanation of that sentence? Karimloo refers to Ramin Karimloo whom Broadway came to know in 2014. His portrayal of Jean Valjean in the second Broadway revival of LES MISERABLES garnered him a Tony nomination and a Theatre World Award. As for “portmanteau,” our online dictionary tells us that it’s “a word […]
HAROLD PRINCE: ON THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES By Peter Filichia
Now it’s too late. For years, I’d been itching to ask Harold Prince “Considering that you chose Lila Kedrova to play Fraulein Schneider in your London production of CABARET in 1968 – just before you were readying your Broadway production of ZORBA – why didn’t you choose her to be Madame Hortense? “After all, she’d […]
HALF TIME: A Glass Much More Than Half-Full By Peter Filichia
Adults agree on very little. They take opposite sides on politics, religion, sexuality, movies and even pizza. However, there’s one thing on which all adults agree. Time goes fast. (Last year I made a New Year’s resolution and wound up keeping it. I’d never managed to do that before. And how did I achieve it […]
