SO, YOU THINK YOU KNOW SWEENEY TODD… By Peter Filichia
What you don’t know – or don’t remember – about SWEENEY TODD could fill a book. Rick Pender has proved that by writing Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: Behind the Bloody Musical Masterpiece. Pender, a Cincinnati reviewer, has attended the tale of Sweeney Todd for 252 pages. To mark the musical’s 46-year history, here are 46 […]
SONS OF A CHORUS LINE By Peter Filichia
With all the talk about A CHORUS LINE’S 50th anniversary, let’s remember that without this excellent 1975 musical, there wouldn’t have been an excellent 2001 musical. A CLASS ACT. It told of Edward Kleban, A CHORUS LINE’s lyricist, whose work netted him the Tony, Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, as well […]
HALF A CHORUS LINE WASN’T BETTER THAN A FULL ONE
Both friends and readers have asked me, “How did July 26 come and go without you commenting on A CHORUS LINE’s 50th anniversary?” Actually, I was saving it for this week, because August 9 was my 50th anniversary of seeing the show. I was living in Boston, so my Manhattan friend Richard Norton was asked […]
CAN THIS MARRIAGE BE SAVED? By Peter Filichia
Returning to the original cast album of REDWOOD had me recalling a column that was once a go-to feature in Ladies’ Home Journal. Starting in 1954 and continuing for several decades, this magazine would ask an expert counselor and its readership, “Can This Marriage Be Saved?” And that became the question I had for REDWOOD’s […]
HATS ON! HERE THEY COME… By Peter Filichia
Congratulations to Rocco Landesman, Kenny Leon, Kathleen Marshall, Paul Tazewell, Richard Thomas, Tom Viola and – posthumously – Rebecca Luker. Earlier this month, they were voted into The American Theater Hall of Fame. Soon their names will be emblazoned on a wall in the Gershwin Theatre lobby. And while we’re congratulating, let’s give shoutouts to […]
