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 […]
This Is the Man of Milk and Honey
By Peter Filichia — Nice tribute to Jerry Herman at the Kennedy Center Awards last week. While the composer-lyricist sat in a box above the action, an all-star cast performed three songs from La Cage aux Folles and three from Hello, Dolly! There were also two from Mame and one each from Mack & Mabel […]
It’s Out of This World!
By Peter Filichia — Many a musical theater writer has found that following a smash hit with another is difficult if not impossible. So after Cole Porter had the biggest success of his career — Kiss Me, Kate on New Year’s Eve, 1948 — critics and audiences may have just been expecting that his next […]
