Call of The Wild Party
By Peter Filichia How well I remember entering the downstairs lobby at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 2000 and seeing the two signs – one of which surprised me. Oh, by then, we’d all become accustomed to “A gunshot will be heard during this performance,” but here was a new one: “Herbal cigarettes are used […]
Second-Acting Your Cast Albums
I don’t know about you, but I tend to listen to a cast album while I’m showering and shaving. As a result, from whatever disc I choose to play, I usually hear the Overture (if there is one), a want-song from the hero and heroine, a charm song and perhaps a Big Production Number. And […]
Remembering Madeline Kahn
By Peter Filichia It’s been a biography-reading month. Immediately after I finished Cy Coleman’s life story — You Fascinate Me So, courtesy of Andy Propst — I started (and finished in no time) William V. Madison’s Madeline Kahn: Being the Music – A Life. There is some overlap, for Coleman and Kahn worked together – […]
GIELGUD DOES SHAKESPEARE’S GREATEST HITS
By Peter Filichia Long before Stephen Sondheim gave us The Three Ages of Women – “First you’re another sloe-eyed vamp, then someone’s mother, then you’re camp” – William Shakespeare in his 1598 hit As You Like It detailed “The Seven Ages of Man.” They encompassed, to use The Bard’s words, infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, […]
Remembering Cy Coleman in Book and Song
By Peter Filichia How do I know if a book on musical theater is worthwhile? If it gets me to play the cast albums that it cites in its pages. Listen to the Cy Coleman Songbook while you read along here. Andy Propst’s You Fascinate Me So: The Life and Times of Cy Coleman did just […]
