GIELGUD DOES SHAKESPEARE’S GREATEST HITS
By Peter Filichia Long before Stephen Sondheim gave us The Three Ages of Women – “First you’re another sloe-eyed vamp, then someone’s mother, then you’re camp” – William Shakespeare in his 1598 hit As You Like It detailed “The Seven Ages of Man.” They encompassed, to use The Bard’s words, infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, […]
Remembering Cy Coleman in Book and Song
By Peter Filichia How do I know if a book on musical theater is worthwhile? If it gets me to play the cast albums that it cites in its pages. Listen to the Cy Coleman Songbook while you read along here. Andy Propst’s You Fascinate Me So: The Life and Times of Cy Coleman did just […]
“GOOD HEAVENS! IT’S AN AMERICAN IN PARIS!””
By Peter Filichia March 20, 1952. RKO Pantages Theatre, Hollywood. The 24th Annual Academy Awards. Finally, it’s time for the Best Picture winner to be announced. Ever since the nominations were released five weeks earlier, some veteran film observers have been betting that the winner will be A Place in the Sun, the much-acclaimed adaptation […]
ZORBAS GREEK TO ME
By Peter Filichia The recent Encores! production of Zorba reiterated what a marvelous score John Kander and Fred Ebb provided for their 1968 musical. Their second 1968 musical, if you want to get technical. Earlier in the year, they had given us The Happy Time, another magnificent series of songs. Not many teams can boast […]
IT SURELY ROARS, BUT CERTAINLY DOESN’T SMELL
By Peter Filichia Fifty years ago this week, after the lights went down at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre, the audience may well have recognized the first twenty-three notes of the Overture to The Roar of the Greasepaint — the Smell of the Crowd. They offered a preview of the song that had already been established as […]
