TEVYE AND TEVYA by Peter Filichia
Fifty years ago this week, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF played performance 2,845, thus besting HELLO, DOLLY! to become the longest-running musical in Broadway history. FIDDLER would run nearly a year longer to become Broadway’s longest-running production period, beating out LIFE WITH FATHER. Now 2,845 just allows FIDDLER to be in seventeenth place. Still, that doesn’t […]
The Musical Theater 700 Club By Peter Filichia
While switching channels in the Hyatt in Madison, Wisconsin (after seeing Forward Theater Company produce my playlet OLD COMISKEY PARK), I ran into a promo for THE 700 CLUB. Wow! It’s still on! In fact, an Internet check showed me it’s now in its fifty-sixth year. I decided that we musical theater enthusiasts should have […]
A Historical Novelist’s Look at 1776
Like so many of us, I spent The Fourth of July watching the film of 1776 – the first laserdisc version, of course, which restores much material that had been cut. True, “Cool, Cool, Considerate Men” looks a little weird with the conservatives looking as if they don’t quite know how to dance. But Sherman […]
IN THIS BIG WONDROUS CITY OF FUN By Peter Filichia
For those of us who were around then, the wait seemed interminable. Fifty-three years ago this month, all nineteen Broadway productions and ten road shows closed because of an Actors Equity Association strike. On that dark June 17th day, we wondered if Broadway would ever return. It did, on June 20. Needless to say, considering […]
MUSICAL THEATER PRIDE By Peter Filichia
Now that we’re approaching Pride Week, let’s listen to the musical theater songs that will keep it gay. Including, of course, “Keep It Gay” from THE PRODUCERS, where we meet flamboyant Roger De Bris and Carmen Ghia. That was in 2001, by which point full out-of-the-closet gays were routinely seen on the Broadway stage. But […]
