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Oliver

Oliver! is Golden

Each of us has experienced it. Life is going along merrily, and then suddenly you gasp for breath. That’s when you remember that you’d forgotten an important anniversary. You rush to a store or e-card site to find anything that says “Happy Belated Anniversary” to send to the parties you’ve neglected. I won’t quite be […]

Your Own Thing – Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording 1968

Do Your Own Thing

Have there been twelve musical versions of Twelfth Night? Perhaps not, but I count at least seven that have seen the light of New York stages: Love and Let Love (1967); Music Is (1976); Play On! (1997); What You Will (2001); Illyria (2002) and, to a lesser degree, All Shook Up, the 2005 musical that […]

Bye Bye Birdie: One More Kiss from the Soundtrack

Bye Bye Birdie: One More Kiss from the Soundtrack

Celebrating a new release of the Bye Bye Birdie soundtrack is certainly delightful. Some, however, may moan when they realize the occasion is the fiftieth anniversary of the original release. On March 29, 1963, RCA Victor issued the long-playing record that offered nine songs from the Tony-winning Broadway musical – and one distinctively new one. […]

Hallelujah, Baby_0

2013: I Resolve

It’s the worst aspect of New Year’s Day. We all feel compelled to make New Year’s Resolutions. And way down deep, we know we’re not going to be able to keep them. People who weigh as much as Stanley Steamers go on diets, hoping that by bathing suit season they’ll be hearing, “You’re looking great, […]

The Boys from Syracuse – Studio Recording 1956

To Honor The Shortest Day of the Year

On December 21 — which is the shortest day of the year in terms of daylight – why not play “The Shortest Day of the Year”? It’s the song that can be found about halfway through The Boys from Syracuse. Richard Rodgers wrote the melody that Lorenz Hart set to lyrics for their 1938 musical […]

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.