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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: […]

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THE OTHER DO RE MI By Peter Filichia

And speaking of Comden and Green – which I did last Tuesday – J2 Spotlight Productions will present their 1960 musical DO RE MI this week and next. Make no mistake: DO RE MI has nothing to do with THE SOUND OF MUSIC – although the sound of Jule Styne’s music complements Comden and Green’s […]

HAIL TO THE CHIEFS! (17)

BETTY AND ADOLPH REDUX By Peter Filichia

Here’s a different slant on “There are no small parts – just small actors.” Mallory Portnoy and Nick Blaemire were lucky and talented enough to land the roles of Betty Comden and Adolph Green in one of 2023’s most acclaimed films: MAESTRO. There’s a tiny, tiny moment in the film where Comden and Green entertain, […]

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TOMMY, WE CAN HEAR YOU! By Peter Filichia

Those of us who attended THE WHO’S TOMMY on March 27 learned that it was a special evening. Before the show, director Des McAnuff stood near the orchestra pit and told us that this was “Alumni Night.” Many of the cast and crew members from his original 1993 Broadway production were in attendance in the […]

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A BRIGHT SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE By Peter Filichia

“A blank page or canvas” aren’t the only things that offer “so many possibilities,” as SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE tells us. So does a bare stage. Eamon Foley certainly knew how to use it in his recent production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winner. He made the 40-year-old musical about […]

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.