May You Have a Musical Theater May
By Peter Filichia — Tra-la! It’s May! The lusty month, as Queen Guenevere once taught us in Camelot. When the last day of April concludes, many of us find this marvelous musical theater song coursing through our brains. Perhaps bookwriter-lyricist Alan Jay Lerner was giving us a subtle hint here of what was to come […]
The Loos Woman Who Observed That Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
By Peter Filichia — She wrote a play called Happy Birthday, so why shouldn’t we wish her one? Granted, Anita Loos, born April 26, 1888, is no longer with us. For that matter, Happy Birthday isn’t, either. But it was obviously a good enough comedy for Rodgers and Hammerstein. In their producing career, they were […]
A Chat with Florence Henderson
By Peter Filichia – Florence Henderson may be known as Carol Brady to millions upon millions, but to those of us who follow Broadway, she’ll always be the leading lady of four musicals that she did in New York from 1952 through 1964. Lately, Henderson has been touring the country in Florence Henderson: All the […]
Julie and Carol: So Nice, They Did It Twice
By Peter Filichia — Julie Andrews played Maria von Trapp on stage two years before she started filming The Sound of Music. Well, at least in a manner of speaking. Andrews actually portrayed a parody version of the would-be nun who became a wife and multiple mother. She was Mama Pratt in the sequence “The […]
Liza in Her Prime
By Peter Filichia –- Liza Minnelli certainly started off 1974 with a bang. Not that 1973 was so bad. On March 27 of that year, Minnelli became the youngest performer to have won a Best Actress in a Musical Tony (for Flora the Red Menace in 1965) and then an Oscar for Leading Actress in […]
