Ethan Mordden ON SONDHEIM by Peter Filichia
By Peter Filichia There are dozens of reasons to read Ethan Mordden’s great books on musical theater. Let me tell you one of my favorites: Mordden’s revelatory opinions on musical after musical get me to revisit these shows’ cast albums. Sometimes I want to relive a glorious song that he’s praised; other times I’m out […]
THE WIZ AND I by Peter Filichia
By Peter Filichia “You MUST tape it.” That was the decree from all my musical theater-centric friends who were in the habit of buying each and every original cast album. Once these New Yorkers and Bostonians knew that my wife and I were driving to Baltimore to attend the first-ever performance of The Wiz at […]
A GREAT TURN OF PHRASE by Peter Filichia
By Peter Filichia One of the great ingredients of the musicals from The Golden Age of Broadway was its lyrics. Wordsmiths gave much attention and care to finding j-u-s-t the right word, the perfect rhyme and the ideal scansion. And every now and then, they’d give us a little lagniappe by taking a phrase that had […]
On Stage, Charlie Brown! by Peter Filichia
By Peter Filichia The Peanuts Movie had me remembering a feeling I’ve had for decades. Charlie Brown got away with murder. I don’t mean that Charles Schulz’s pie-faced cartoon character actually killed anyone. Although I do believe that if the kid ever did rub out Lucy van Pelt, a smart lawyer for the defense in “The […]
GUYS AND DOLLS: THE GOLDEN AGE’S NEW GOLDEN AGER By Peter Filichia
GUYS AND DOLLS: THE GOLDEN AGE’S NEW GOLDEN AGER By Peter Filichia Turning sixty-five this week is one of the Broadway’s greatest musicals. Indeed, some say it’s the all-time greatest. Of course we’re talking about Guys and Dolls, which made its bow at the 46th Street Theatre on Nov. 24, 1950, not the 1992 revival […]
