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Raisin’ Some Memories of Raisin By Peter Filichia Funny thing; soon after I’d watched the film 42 — which details Jackie Robinson’s historic journey in becoming become baseball’s first black player and superstar — I realized that that number was about to be relevant to African-American history once again. Raisin – the musical version of […]

By Peter Filichia It was the first musical to be denied a Best Musical Tony nomination and yet win the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. Until Aida in 2000, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever was the only show to hold that distinction. Bookwriter-lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane had […]

By Peter Filichia For me, one of the great nights of the 2015-2016 season will take place when I saunter into the tiny York Theatre Company that’s nestled in the bowels of the Citicorp Building. Sherman Yellen and Sheldon Harnick have reconceived their 1970 musical The Rothschilds and have turned it into a 90-minute musical […]

By Peter Filichia “As a very young man,” says John Bolton, “I’d already decided that I just had to have every original cast album that had ever been made.” Well, which of us can’t relate to that? So at one point in the ‘70s, the Rochester, New York native went into his local record store […]

By Peter Filichia “Regardless of what I have done, seen, and enjoyed, I think of myself as a dancer. It is the essence of my work ethic, my values, and my balance in life.” If you didn’t read the subject line that told you this article would center on Shirley MacLaine, you probably wouldn’t guess […]