HAPPY SIXTIETH, CANDIDE By Peter Filichia
Who’d expect that a contemporary Dutch playwright would take time in one of her plays to cite a song from Candide? While I watched The Origin Theatre Company’s production of Lot Vekemans’ arduous but moving Poison, I was astonished to hear “It Must Be So” mentioned. Still, a reference to that excellent short song was […]
Best Thing That Ever Could Have Happened to MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG By Peter Filichia
Did you see what Newsweek’s Joe Westerfield had to say about Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened? We’re talking about Lonny Price’s extraordinary documentary about the original 1981 Broadway production of Merrily We Roll Along. That Price did a fine job as a historian isn’t surprising, for he was there from the first-ever […]
‘TIS THE SEASON TO BE LISTENING TO A CHRISTMAS CAROL By Peter Filichia
They’ve arguably done more than anyone else to get kids interested in musicals. We’re talking about lyricist Lynn Ahrens and composer Alan Menken who for decades have delighted children (and, when you come to think of it, plenty of adults, too). Ahrens is a Tony-winner lyricist whose credits include the child-centric Seussical, Anastasia and many […]
REMEMBER VINYL? FOUR RECENT MUSICALS DO By Peter Filichia
The more things change, the more – well, you know the rest of the quotation coined by one Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr in 1849. And here we are seeing a nostalgia for vinyl records in the digital and download era. In the acclaimed musical The Drowsy Chaperone, its hero, simply known as Man in Chair, tells […]
OL’ SPOON RIVER, THAT OL’ SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY By Peter Filichia
So this week, Masterworks Broadway finally gives you the opportunity to hear a 1963 Broadway hit on a CD or download. Spoon River Anthology. Yes, hit – although it could only manage 111 Broadway performances. That’s not a long run, but in the 1963-64 season, it was enough to outdistance Mary Martin’s new musical Jennie […]
