Forty Years, Forty Facts for A Chorus Line
By Peter Filichia Actually, the title of Tom Rowan’s A Chorus Line FAQ does prove once again that you can’t judge a book by its title. “FAQ,” of course, stands for “Frequent Asked Questions.” But Rowan doesn’t structure his book as questions and answers; he simply gives a straightforward account of how one of the […]
WHEN A CHORUS LINE WAS STARTING OUT By Peter Filichia
WHEN A CHORUS LINE WAS STARTING OUT By Peter Filichia “Remember the first time you saw A Chorus Line?” So went a television commercial that aired around 1983, a little more than halfway through the show’s then-record 6,137-performance Broadway run. Now I’ll ask you “Remember the first time you heard A Chorus Line?” For some of […]
Raisin’ Some Memories of Raisin By Peter Filichia
Raisin’ Some Memories of Raisin By Peter Filichia Funny thing; soon after I’d watched the film 42 — which details Jackie Robinson’s historic journey in becoming become baseball’s first black player and superstar — I realized that that number was about to be relevant to African-American history once again. Raisin – the musical version of […]
Clearing Up Clear Day by Peter Filichia
By Peter Filichia It was the first musical to be denied a Best Musical Tony nomination and yet win the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. Until Aida in 2000, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever was the only show to hold that distinction. Bookwriter-lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane had […]
The Rothschilds’ Rich Score by Peter Filichia
By Peter Filichia For me, one of the great nights of the 2015-2016 season will take place when I saunter into the tiny York Theatre Company that’s nestled in the bowels of the Citicorp Building. Sherman Yellen and Sheldon Harnick have reconceived their 1970 musical The Rothschilds and have turned it into a 90-minute musical […]
