FLORA’S FIFTY!
By Peter Filichia It was hardly George Abbott’s first Broadway show. In fact, he already worked on or at least had his name on more than a hundred. But it certainly was the first Broadway effort for the musical’s star and songwriting team. All experienced bittersweet results from this musical called Flora, the Red Menace […]
TWO’S COMPANY, THREE CHEERS
By Peter Filichia God love these legendary Oscar-winning actresses who felt they hadn’t run the entire entertainment gauntlet until they’d done a Broadway musical. Katharine Hepburn, Vivien Leigh and Shelley Winters all tried their luck singin’ and dancin’ long after they’d won their gold statuettes. And so did Bette Davis, the 1935 Oscar-winner for Dangerous […]
HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY, HALF A SIXPENCE
By Peter Filichia We’ve missed the fiftieth anniversary of Half a Sixpence, but let’s not allow it to go by without mentioning this “big, blooming hit” (John McClain, Journal American). The happy-go-lucky musical, which celebrated its semicentennial on April 25, wound up as Broadway’s fourth-longest-running British musical import – or maybe even third-longest, depending on […]
DAMES AT SEA SAILS TO LONDON
By Peter Filichia There have been 1,025 recordings of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” 1,604 renditions of Hoagy Carmichael and Mitchell Parish’s “Star Dust” and over 2,200 covers of Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday.” But there have been precious few recordings of “Good Times Are Here to Stay,” the marvelous cheer-up song that’s the Act One closer […]
Hello, Hazel Flagg!
By Peter Filichia If you didn’t get to the Lion Theatre last month, then you missed your chance. Musicals Tonight! did an excellent staged reading of Hazel Flagg. At least there’s that 1953 original cast album of the Jule Styne-Bob Hilliard score. The first of those two names you undoubtedly know. Jule Styne was the […]
