Call Me Madam Dinah
By Peter Filichia – Are you one of those musical theater enthusiasts who can’t stand Ethel Merman? You don’t need analyzing. It is not so surprising. Every entertainer throughout history, no matter how beloved by millions, manages to leave some people cold and others hot with anger. These non-fans are often at a loss to […]
The New Girl Is Back in Town
By Peter Filichia — Can you get to The Irish Repertory Theatre by September 9? Any musical theater aficionado should, for there’s a rare revival of a very good 1957 musical: New Girl in Town. It’s an adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Anna Christie. This is the one in which Boy meets Girl, unaware […]
Mistakes Were Made … on Cast Albums
By Peter Filichia — Faithful readers may recall last week that I dealt with the marvelous original cast album of 110 in the Shade. I mentioned that after it was recorded in late 1963, the overture was not included on the record. We had to wait twenty-seven years to hear it, and only after it […]
110 in the Shade: A Hot Show
By Peter Filichia — We’re having a heat wave in most of the country. Temperatures are hitting 110 in the shade. Well, many of you have already inferred where this column is going: to 110 in the Shade, the first Broadway musical written by bookwriter-lyricist Tom Jones and composer Harvey Schmidt in 1963. It’s the […]
Working: That’s What Makes It an Art
By Peter Filichia – So what’s your favorite Stephen Schwartz song? Of course, we’ve got plenty from which to choose. After all, Schwartz has been one of musical theater’s most valuable songwriters for more than four decades. According to my records, we’ve heard 61 of his songs on Broadway — which would have been 76 […]
