The Butlers Did It By Peter Filichia
While listening to the splendid original cast album of LITTLE ME – in honor of the show’s fifth-eighth anniversary on Nov. 17 – I started thinking about a certain occupation that’s made its mark on Broadway. Butler. That may seem to be a strange thing to take away from LITTLE ME, given that anyone listening […]
THE SOUND OF MUSIC QUESTIONS By Peter Filichia
Do you know or remember the three suggestions that Oscar Hammerstein made to the staff of GYPSY after he’d attended a tryout performance in early 1959? One: Fix the loose doorknob on the set. Two: Move “You’ll Never Get away from Me” from the middle of the scene to the end. Three: Give the audience […]
ONLY THING TO DO IS HEAR OVER THE MOON By Peter Filichia
Let’s echo a phrase that Frank Rich wrote nearly thirty years ago. Rich, the esteemed theater critic for The New York Times, saw the Disney animated film BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. His reaction to composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman’s work? “It’s the best Broadway musical score of 1991.” Rich was being ironic but serious […]
A BOUNTY OF BENANTI By Peter Filichia
While listening to a terrific new album, I recalled the day in 1997 when I answered the telephone and heard a voice say “I know you’re going to think I’m crazy.” I immediately recognized the caller as Walker Joyce, the artistic director of The Bickford Theatre in Morris Township, New Jersey. On that winter day […]
MEET JEANNETTE (AND YOU SHOULD HAVE MET HER LONG AGO) By Peter Filichia
Even those who created a website in Jeannette Rankin’s honor wouldn’t be surprised if you’d never heard of her. For the first thing you see when you call up www.jrpc.org is “Jeanette Who?” Luckily for us musical theater fans, both playwright Lauren M. Gunderson and composer-lyricist Ari Afsar learned some years back about Jeannette Rankin. They’re in the […]
