LOOK OVER HERE! FOR MORE INFORMATION By Peter Filichia
The concert version of OVER HERE! last month in New York spurred Lynda Wells to give me a call. She was Maxene Andrews’ daughter and longtime lover. Did that sentence grab your attention? Wells was Andrews’ lover first and foremost starting in 1973, around the time when plans were afoot to bring OVER HERE! to […]
YOURS TRULY, COLE PORTER By Peter Filichia
We know the word “de-lovely” from a Cole Porter song and the title of a 2004 biopic of the legendary composer-lyricist. In case you’ve ever wondered how it originated, THE LETTERS OF COLE PORTER will inform you. In a missive to Variety editor Abel Green on May 25, 1945, Porter wrote of the time he, […]
BEAU: Grandfather’s Day By Peter Filichia
Those who have lived with parents — and have had grandparents visit them – were quick to learn one fact of life. Grandparents love you in a way that your parents can’t, don’t or won’t. We see that once again in BEAU, a new funk-folk bluegrass musical that isn’t blue in either mood or language. […]
Kern, Gershwin, Rodgers or Sondheim? By Peter Filichia
Back in September, there was a nifty new play that posed a question which you’ll find a real head-scratcher. New York didn’t see the show, although it should. Dan McCabe’s THE PURISTS is great fun when it needs to be and deadly serious when the situation warrants it. The show, given a dazzling production by […]
STAGES: A MEMORABLE MEMOIR By Peter Filichia
There are plenty of surprises in Albert Poland’s memoir STAGES, but one stands out among all the rest. Although Poland was a general manager for nearly five dozen off-Broadway productions, his first foray into downtown theater was as a co-producer of a 1967 musical. You can see his name atop the original cast album of […]