Oh, Pinocchio! by Peter Filichia
Oh, Pinocchio! By Peter Filichia “This is a book that deserves attention” says Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump of Richard A. Lertzman and William J. Birnes’ The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney. But Simon & Schuster isn’t bringing it out until October 20. So while we’re waiting, we can get a Mickey Rooney fix […]
Oh, KAY! IS MORE THAN OKAY
By Peter Filichia Just spent a delightful week at The College of Wooster (Ohio) where Ohio Light Opera presented three operettas and four musicals. The latter category included one of 1926’s biggest hits: Oh, Kay! It has a book by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse, but much more significantly, music by George Gershwin and […]
ALL THAT LIVE MUST BECOME OBSOLETE
By Peter Filichia After I’d finished a recent lecture to a group of young musical theater students, one of them approached me and said “I’ve got a question. In ‘Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen, Hello Love’ in A Chorus Line, when that singer says that he was ‘Locked in the bathroom with Peyton Place,’ do you […]
MUSICAL THEATER’S MOST UNDERRATED LYRICS
By Peter Filichia Sure, listen to Sondheim’s “Uptown/Downtown” (cut from Follies) and you’ll be astonished by the rhymes and wordplay. Pull out E.Y. Harburg’s “When I’m Not Near the Girl I Love” (from Finian’s Rainbow) and you’ll be equally dazzled. These are the easy lyrics to admire. But what about the ones that pass by […]
A LIST OF LIST SONGS by Peter Filichia
A LIST OF LIST SONGS By Peter Filichia In The Mikado, KoKo sings “I’ve Got a Little List,” a song that premiered in 1885 and opened the floodgates for 130 years of “list songs” that would be written for the musical theater. I’ve got a little list, too – one that cites the list songs […]
