REMEMBERING ANN REINKING By Peter Filichia
The date: August 27, 1977. The place: The theater then known as the 46th Street and now called the Richard Rodgers. The show: CHICAGO. Some might assume that this is the same CHICAGO whose marquee still graces the Ambassador on 49th Street. Hasn’t it been around forever? No, this was the original production that had […]
AN INVITATION TO ANOTHER PROM By Peter Filichia
There aren’t many people who are able to make the claim that Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin can. In fewer than two years, this composer-and-lyricist team has been able to boast of having both an original cast album and a soundtrack album of the same show. THE PROM, which opened at the Longacre in November, […]
SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR CAPTAIN HOOK By Peter Filichia
Sixty years ago this week, one of the most anticipated events in the history of television took place: PETER PAN in color. The first two broadcasts of the musical version of the James M. Barrie classic in 1955 and 1956 had to settle for black and white. But by 1960, color TV had made its […]
JUNO – AND NOT THAT 2007 TEEN MOVIE By Peter Filichia
“How could a musical that boasted what many have called Blitzstein’s most melodic, accessible music have failed?” So asked Jeff Godsey in 2007. He was writing a paper on the 1959 musical JUNO for a historiography class at The University of Wisconsin-Madison. He shared it with me, and I’m glad he did, for we all […]
CLOSE BUT NO TONY By Peter Filichia
Which races were the closest in Tony history? We could ask this question of all two-dozen plus categories that have come, gone or stayed during the awards’ august seventy-four-year history. But for today, let’s limit it to musical performers in their four slots. This list isn’t intended to imply that those who wound up winning and […]
