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IT”S THE LITTLE THINGS

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

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

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

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 […]

On the London Town

On the London Town

By Peter Filichia   If I had a chance to run into Leonard Bernstein wherever he is now, I’d ask him to forgive me.   I just – for the first time ever – heard the Original London Cast album of On the Town that was recorded in 1963. And I vastly prefer how musical […]

Peter Filichia is the theater critic emeritus for the Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey and News 12 New Jersey.

He is a columnist each Friday for www.mtishows.com and www.kritzerland.com.

Filichia is the author of Let’s Put on a Musical, now in its third printing; Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit of the Season / The Biggest Flop of the Season and Broadway Musical MVPs 1960-2010: The Most Valuable Players of the Last 50 Seasons. His new book, Strippers, Showgirls, and Sharks will be published in May, 2013 by St. Martin’s Press.

He has been a columnist for Playbill, Theater.com, Theatermania and Theater Week.

Before joining the Theatre World Awards in 1996 as host and head of the selection committee, Filichia served four terms as president of the Drama Desk. He has served on an assessment panel for the National Endowment for the Arts, and is currently critic-in-residence for the University of Cincinnati-Conservatory of Music and the musical theater judge for the ASCAP Awards program.