Celebrating a Fiddler on the Roof Milestone
By Peter Filichia If you’re reading this on Tuesday, September 23, it’s the fiftieth anniversary of the day in 1964 that Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick, Jerome Robbins, Harold Prince and dozens of others opened the six different newspapers that New York then had and read the critics’ reviews of their new show […]
IT”S THE LITTLE THINGS
By Peter Filichia “It’s the little things, the little things” Elaine Stritch insisted in Company. And she was right — little things do mean a lot. That’s especially true of those little things we hear on cast albums. In fact, why not start my little list with Stritch and Company? During “Side by […]
A Second Look at Pins and Needles
By Peter Filichia Last week, I used the excuse of “National Sewing Month” to introduce you to Pins and Needles. Hey, whatever it takes. The 1962 studio cast album of Pins and Needles, which commemorated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the famous revue,is among the musical theater recordings that I most cherish. Thus […]
Pins and Needles: That Other Barbra Streisand Album
By Peter Filichia September is National Sewing Month, so this would seem to be as good a time as any to honor people who work with pins and needles. It’s also a good chance to celebrate the musical and studio cast recording of Pins and Needles, too. Harold Rome, its composer-lyricist, had to […]
Going Forward from A to Z
By Peter Filichia Musical theater writers have many goals, but there’s one for which they always aim. Write a song that will advance the action. There are plenty of wonderful songs that do just that, but these are the songs the general public is least likely to hear. Even in the Golden […]
