A NICE PLACE TO VISIT By Peter Filichia
Channel-surfing brought me to a program that started me thinking and made me disagree with what it had to say. It was a first-season episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE called “A Nice Place to Visit.” Small-time crook Rocky is shot while attempting a robbery. When he awakens, he’s surprised that he’s alive. A genial gentleman […]
THE REAL PAL JOEY By Peter Filichia
Granted, hearing most any song with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart is a pleasure. However, some theatergoers were disappointed to hear so many of them in the recent PAL JOEY at City Center. The reason: Rodgers and Hart’s songs from other properties were shoved into what had been a PAL JOEY […]
GET IT: WHOLESALE By Peter Filichia
Whether you’re discovering or revisiting Harold Rome’s score for I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE, you’ll have a splendid time. The 1962 musical was not his biggest hit. The revues PINS AND NEEDLES and CALL ME MISTER ran longer. Rome’s book shows, FANNY and DESTRY RIDES AGAIN, did, too. WHOLESALE played 300 performances and […]
HERE’S TO THE LADIES WHO TALKED By Peter Filichia
He’s the one who put together dozens of interviews for his previous tomes. One was called A Wonderful Guy: Conversations with the Great Men of Musical Theater. Before that, though, he provided Nothing Like a Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater. So, what can Eddie Shapiro do for an encore? Here’s to […]
TITANIC SAILS AGAIN By Peter Filichia
If you see the film of the Tony-winning TITANIC at your local multiplex on November 4 or 8, you may soon be asking yourself a question. Has there ever been a musical that offers more dramatic irony than the Broadway hit of the same title that opened only a few months before the film? Just […]
