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MERRILY: BEYOND THE ILLS OF THE ‘80S By Peter Filichia

Stephen Sondheim is getting closer to breaking his own record. His 1964 musical ANYONE CAN WHISTLE ran a mere nine performances but has received three cast albums. First, the one with the original cast, then a 1995 concert recording (both of which are on Masterworks Broadway) and a 2020 studio cast recording. No musical that […]

HAIL TO THE CHIEFS! (2)

THE KIT KAT CABARET By Peter Filichia

Has this ever happened before? Go to the August Wilson Theatre, and you’ll see the words “The Kit Kat Club” on all three sides of the marquee. Above it is a two-sided sign that says the same thing. Some signs sport the letter “C” with a circle in the space that keeps a “C” from […]

HAIL TO THE CHIEFS!

A NICE PLACE TO VISIT By Peter Filichia

Channel-surfing brought me to a program that started me thinking and made me disagree with what it had to say. It was a first-season episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE called “A Nice Place to Visit.” Small-time crook Rocky is shot while attempting a robbery. When he awakens, he’s surprised that he’s alive. A genial gentleman […]

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THE REAL PAL JOEY By Peter Filichia

Granted, hearing most any song with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart is a pleasure. However, some theatergoers were disappointed to hear so many of them in the recent PAL JOEY at City Center. The reason: Rodgers and Hart’s songs from other properties were shoved into what had been a PAL JOEY […]

THE FUTURE IS BACK WITH US (1)

GET IT: WHOLESALE By Peter Filichia

Whether you’re discovering or revisiting Harold Rome’s score for I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE, you’ll have a splendid time. The 1962 musical was not his biggest hit. The revues PINS AND NEEDLES and CALL ME MISTER ran longer. Rome’s book shows, FANNY and DESTRY RIDES AGAIN, did, too. WHOLESALE played 300 performances and […]

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.