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By Peter Filichia Long before we turned our attentions to Elphaba and away from Dorothy Gale, bookwriter Sidney Michaels, composer Larry Grossman and lyricist Hal Hackady had the same general idea for a completely different story. The result was Goodtime Charley, which opened on Broadway at the Palace forty years ago this week. While the […]

By Peter Filichia Now that we’ve celebrated February and Black History Month, let’s move to March, which is Women’s History Month. Listen to the playlist I created to go along with your reading here. Readers are encouraged to spend each day of the month playing a song or score that features a great female star […]

By Peter Filichia   Did you know that February 18 is National Advice Day?   Probably not. But someone decided it is.   Perhaps a musical theater lyricist invented the “holiday.” When you think of it, many of these craftsmen have been dispensing good advice for quite some time. Put on a happy face. You […]

By Peter Filichia   Faithful readers will recall that two weeks ago I mentioned that I preferred “Together Wherever We Go” on the 1973 London Cast Album of Gypsy. Because it offers all of Sondheim’s lyrics, the cut is nearly a minute longer than it is on the 1959 Original Cast Album.   Many who […]

By Peter Filichia   Time does fly, does it not? Already more than one twelfth of the “new” year in gone, and now we’re already in Black History Month.   I trust that on Sunday, February 1, you started celebrating by playing Street Scene, for on this date in 1902, its librettist, Langston Hughes was […]