The Overtures Is About to Miss
By Peter Filichia I once asked Charles Strouse if he expected that “Baby, Talk to Me” would be Bye Bye Birdie’s big hit. After all, it was the first featured song in the overture, placed and played with such authority that it seemed to say “This is the one, folks. This is the […]
Cabaret’s Sui Generis Cast Album
Most of the hundreds of original cast albums have of course been recorded in studios. A few have been recorded live, such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s Porgy & Bess, the British Moby Dick and Catch My Soul. And then there was Mummenschanz, a mime show where a listener ONLY heard the audience response. (Seriously: nothing else.) […]
In Praise of Anita Gillette
By Peter Filichia What a nice event at the Spiral Theatre Studio last Wednesday night. At Richard Skipper Celebrates, a chat-series helmed by the eponymous raconteur, the ever-charming Anita Gillette was the subject. Granted, most Americans may remember Gillette from her 20,000 appearances on The $20,000 Pyramid and other game shows. Daytime mavens […]
Original (Bullets over) Broadway Cast Album
By Peter Filichia All right, most of us don’t like the semi-recent phenomenon of “jukebox musicals.” And yet, we must admit that far more often than not such shows spur entertaining original cast albums. Maintaining this tradition is Bullets over Broadway. Woody Allen’s 1994 film – which insisted that a true artist will […]
IF/THEN – RIGHT NOW
By Peter Filichia So many of us who are crying out for original musicals are doubly grateful for If/Then – because it gives us two of them. Bookwriter-lyricist Brian Yorkey doesn’t limit himself to a single story when dealing with Elizabeth (Idina Menzel). Just as A Little Night Music has often been called […]
