Charting the Original Cast Albums
By Peter Filichia – Fifty years ago, Camelot was in the middle of its six-week reign as The #1 Record Album in the land. Not The #1 Musical Theater Record Album in the land. The #1 Record Album in the land — period. In other words, no other album from January 23 through March 2, […]
Songs for February 2
By Peter Filichia — So this is the week we celebrate Groundhog Day, which has taken on a new and different meaning ever since that Bill Murray movie debuted in 1993. In case you’ve missed it – and I hope you haven’t – Murray portrays Phil Connors, a weatherman on a one-day assignment in Punxsutawney, […]
Sweet Music, Lyrics — and Star
By Peter Filichia — Once The Small World of Charity was announced in early 1965, all Broadway was looking forward to this new Bob Fosse musical that would star Gwen Verdon. But there was never anything small about any Bob Fosse musical, so the name of this Cy Coleman-Dorothy Fields musicalization of Fellini’s Cabiria was […]
One of My Old Fav’rite Songs from Way Back When
By Peter Filichia — Since MasterworksBroadway and Arkiv have made concerted efforts to re-release a number of stage recordings of yore, I’ve found that my friends have been most looking forward to Originals: Musical Comedy, 1909-1935. To be frank, I was a little surprised. Most of my buddies get enthusiastic about recordings of full scores. […]
The Second Time Around
By Peter Filichia — It’s one of the worst-kept secrets of musical theater. Many a song that was written for one musical wound up dropped – but some time later wound up in another show. I’m not counting interpolated songs that went into already existing properties; for example, when 42nd Street came to the stage […]
