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A COMPLICATED WOMAN WHO LOVED GOLDEN AGE MUSICALS By Peter Filichia

Although the new musical trying out Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theatre is called A COMPLICATED WOMAN, it could just as easily be titled A COMPLICATED MAN. That sounds complicated, too, doesn’t it? The explanation, though, is that the baby born to the Kenleys in 1906 had both male and female organs. Says Jeff Calhoun, who’s directing […]

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ON THE TOWN’S SUBWAYS AND TURNSTILES By Peter Filichia

Does everybody get the joke in ON THE TOWN? That occurred to me last week at the uber-popular Ellen’s Stardust Diner. How popular? Pass by, and you’ll undoubtedly see a line longer than the ones once witnessed at FUNNY GIRL, FIDDLER and DOLLY combined. FUNNY GIRL comes to mind because Ellen’s, at Broadway and 51st […]

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Tony Timing Is Everything By Peter Filichia

In the last week, you’ve probably heard two words over and over. “Robbed” and “snubbed.” Yes, it happens every spring once fans hear the nominations for New York theater awards. The Tonys, Drama Desks, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World Awards all get many stage enthusiasts outraged when their favorites get few if any nominations. […]

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One Night Only at the Mark Hellinger By Peter Filichia

Forty years ago this week, a revival of a smash-hit with a Tony-winning score opened. It boasted a Tony-winning actress and an Oscar-nominated star who was repeating his role on stage. And yet, OLIVER! closed after 17 performances. Who would have expected that Ron Moody, the stage and film Fagin, and Patti LuPone, inheriting the […]

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SPRINGTIME FOR HIT SHOWS IN GERMANY (AND SOUTH KOREA) By Peter Filichia

Although FINIAN’S RAINBOW asks, “How are things in Glocca Morra,” let’s instead enquire, “How are things in Germany and South Korea? Where Broadway musicals are concerned, David Savran assures us that things are quite well in these two very disparate countries. Savran’s new book from Oxford University Press is called TELL IT TO THE WORLD: […]

Peter Filichia is the theater critic emeritus for the Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey and News 12 New Jersey.

He is a columnist each Friday for www.mtishows.com and www.kritzerland.com.

Filichia is the author of Let’s Put on a Musical, now in its third printing; Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit of the Season / The Biggest Flop of the Season and Broadway Musical MVPs 1960-2010: The Most Valuable Players of the Last 50 Seasons. His new book, Strippers, Showgirls, and Sharks will be published in May, 2013 by St. Martin’s Press.

He has been a columnist for Playbill, Theater.com, Theatermania and Theater Week.

Before joining the Theatre World Awards in 1996 as host and head of the selection committee, Filichia served four terms as president of the Drama Desk. He has served on an assessment panel for the National Endowment for the Arts, and is currently critic-in-residence for the University of Cincinnati-Conservatory of Music and the musical theater judge for the ASCAP Awards program.