RON FASSLER SEES THAT THE SHOW GOES ON By Peter Filichia
Did you know that when Pearl Bailey was on Broadway doing HELLO, DOLLY! she actually urged the public not to see the show? Well, not always, but certainly at certain performances. See if you’re surprised when you’re told the circumstances in Ron Fassler’s terrific new book THE SHOW GOES ON. Its subtitle is “Broadway’s Hirings, […]
BROADWAY’S WORDS OF THE YEAR BY PETER FILICHIA
Let’s hear it for demure! It’s Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year. Yes, in addition to Time’s Person of the Year and Sports Illustrated’’s Sportsperson of the Year, Dictionary.com annually chooses a word that, according to its recent press release, “isn’t just about popular usage” So why demure? Turns out it “was chosen because TikTok user […]
MORE ON CHICAGO THEN AND NOW By Peter Filichia
When we left Roxie Hart last Tuesday, she was singing “My Own Best Friend” – all by herself. Yes, John Kander and Fred Ebb originally conceived their song as a solo for the woman that Fred Casely wished he’d never met. Only as time went on did Velma Kelly, an equally guilty murderer, join the […]
CHICAGO THEN AND NOW By Peter Filichia
CHICAGO’s hitting the 11,000-performance mark last month inspired me. I pulled out the Bob Fosse-Fred Ebb script from August 3, 1973 – 22 months before the show came to Broadway. Let’s all see how the John Kander and Ebb score changed or was enhanced during that span, which included a tryout in Philadelphia. “All That […]
THE WOMAN WHO WROTE ABOUT WOMEN WRITING MUSICALS By Peter Filichia
Maybe you don’t know who Mae Anwerda Sloane or Annelu Burns were, but Jennifer Ashley Tepper sure does. They’re just two of the dozens upon dozens of subjects that Tepper recounts in her astonishing new book Women Writing Musicals. Oh, Tepper admits in her compelling introduction that she doesn’t get around to every woman who […]
