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Shirley MacLaine Remembers Her Broadway Roots By Peter Filichia

By Peter Filichia “Regardless of what I have done, seen, and enjoyed, I think of myself as a dancer. It is the essence of my work ethic, my values, and my balance in life.” If you didn’t read the subject line that told you this article would center on Shirley MacLaine, you probably wouldn’t guess […]

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Grammar In, Grammar Out by Peter Filichia

By Peter Filichia I’m not the only one who celebrated Alan Jay Lerner 97th birthday on August 31st. Dozens of others went on Facebook to honor the bookwriter/lyricist of My Fair Lady, Camelot, Gigi, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever — and a few other musicals. More than one Facebooker recounted the story of […]

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Remembering Dean Jones by Peter Filichia

By Peter Filichia If he’d never done Company, few of us Broadway-centric types would have given much thought to the death of 84-year-old Dean Jones last week. But in 1970, the actor just happened to find himself in one of the great legendary musicals of the twentieth century. Jones had the leading role of Bobby, the […]

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How original is BRIGADOON? By Peter Filichia

By Peter Filichia We’re continuing to celebrate what would have been Alan Jay Lerner’s 97th birthday on August 31. Let’s hope that he would have regarded this column as a present. Last week, we talked about Brigadoon, Lerner’s first hit that had received raves from all nine (!) newspaper critics. Robert Coleman in the Mirror called it […]

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BRIGADOON: A STUDIO CAST ALBUM THAT SHINES

By Peter Filichia Let’s get ready to celebrate what would have been Alan Jay Lerner’s 97th birthday on August 31. Alas, we lost him on June 14, 1986, when he was but sixty-seven years old. At least his most enduring works can be found here at Masterworks Broadway. Let’s start with Brigadoon, his first hit […]

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.