
Happy Birthday, Abie Baby By Peter Filichia
Since the advent of Presidents’ Day in the ‘80s, not much has been made of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. There was a time when Americans were very much aware that the sixteenth President of the United States had been born on February 12. Oh, it was never as big a deal as George Washington’s birthday ten […]

BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM: THE MUSICAL By Peter Filichia
When Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was all the rage in 1967, many listeners were very glad that “Within You, Without You” was the first song on the second side. These people, who weren’t fond of the song’s Hindustani sound, found it easier to position the needle on the second song on the second […]

Happy 50th Birthday, SWEET CHARITY By Peter Filichia
This Friday, January 29, I’ll step into the Palace Theatre to see An American in Paris. It’ll be precisely fifty years since I entered the Palace for the first time to see a musical. That was January 29, 1966, when a teenaged me attended the opening night of Sweet Charity. I bought an F 28 […]

I’m in the Middle on This by Peter Filichia
“Don’t you find it pretentious that so many writers, directors and performers today use their middle names?” This was the question not asked by Gilbert Gottfried, who does an entire five-minute routine complaining about “The Land of the Three-Named People. It was by a buddy whose anonymity I’ll protect by calling him John. And John […]

Remembering Elizabeth Swados by Peter Filichia
The first Broadway show she ever saw was The Boy Friend with Julie Andrews. “I thought it was phenomenal,” she said. So she became interested in musicals and community theater. “I was June in Gypsy,” she said with a smile. “To tell the truth, Gypsy may be my favorite of anything in the entire world.” […]