
MERRILY ROLLING AGAIN, ROLLING AGAIN By Peter Filichia
After the end of each song, no theatergoer shouted “Whooo!” None of the performers held a note for an inordinately long length of time, so no attendee was moved to scream at the halfway mark. Perhaps it was an off performance, you say? No, the applause after each song was hearty and commensurate with the […]

THERE IS ALWAYS LITTLE ME By Peter Filichia
In a used bookshop in Morristown, New Jersey, I sauntered by the magazine section and gave out with a smile. Considering that the Life magazine that topped the pile was over 60 years old, it was in remarkable shape. After all, with its fold-over double cover, it had had twice as many opportunities to be […]

NINA HIRSCHFELD’S FATHER’S NEWEST COLLECTION By Peter Filichia
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many does an Al Hirschfeld caricature rate? On the other hand, you may be speechless and offer none, after strolling through Memory Lane (and Shubert Alley) with THE AMERICAN THEATRE AS SEEN BY HIRSCHFELD 1962-2002. The man who was so important to Broadway (and points beyond) […]

BEAU GOES TO THE MOVIES By Peter Filichia
Has this ever happened before? A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that YOUR OWN THING was the first off-Broadway musical to be optioned and sold for a film that was never made. But here’s BEAU, a musical that hasn’t even played off-Broadway – just Joe’s Pub – and yet actually was optioned, sold and […]

BROADWAY IS MUSEUM QUALITY By Peter Filichia
No, it doesn’t offer quite a lotta Roman terra cotta or livin’ lava from the flanks of Etna that the eponymous title character of BARNUM had promised you. However, the Museum of Broadway is of more interest to us theater fans than his establishment ever could have been. Considering how crowded this 45th Street emporium has […]