HERE’S HERE’S LOVE By Peter Filichia
Although a number of musicals have exclamation points, one surprisingly doesn’t. HERE’S LOVE If you know the title song from Meredith Willson’s 1963 musical – a jaunty tune in which the title is mentioned many, many times – you’d hear Laurence Naismith as well as a chorus of adults and kids vocally put exclamation points […]
AUGUST IS FOR THE AUGUST By Peter Filichia
Now that August has arrived, let’s look at those who have been august on Broadway. Yes, August/august has two meanings. In Eight B.C., the Roman Senate honored its first emperor, one Augustus Caesar, by changing the month “Sextilis” to “Augustus.” It was later shortened to “August.” Along the way “august” also came to mean “someone […]
WHY A GREAT SONG WAS DROPPED FROM A GREAT MUSICAL By Peter Filichia
Last week we talked about TEVYA, the 1939 film version of the play TEVYA DER MILKHIKER by Sholom (or Sholem, depending on your source) Aleichem. Yes, TEVYA with an “A,” not Tevye with an “E” as we’re used to seeing it in Playbills and liner notes for FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. The Yiddish-language film’s subtitles […]
TEVYE AND TEVYA by Peter Filichia
Fifty years ago this week, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF played performance 2,845, thus besting HELLO, DOLLY! to become the longest-running musical in Broadway history. FIDDLER would run nearly a year longer to become Broadway’s longest-running production period, beating out LIFE WITH FATHER. Now 2,845 just allows FIDDLER to be in seventeenth place. Still, that doesn’t […]
The Musical Theater 700 Club By Peter Filichia
While switching channels in the Hyatt in Madison, Wisconsin (after seeing Forward Theater Company produce my playlet OLD COMISKEY PARK), I ran into a promo for THE 700 CLUB. Wow! It’s still on! In fact, an Internet check showed me it’s now in its fifty-sixth year. I decided that we musical theater enthusiasts should have […]
