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THE COMPLETE BOOK OF 2010s BROADWAY MUSICALS By Peter Filichia

He’s done it nine times before, and now he’s done it again. Dan Dietz has thrilled and amazed us all with his THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BROADWAY MUSICALS series, which has spanned the 1920s through the first decade of the 2000s. Now, after having achieved this triple-triple crown, he brings us his tenth jewel: THE […]

broadway market

THE VIRTUAL BROADWAY MARKET By Peter Filichia

Despite the pandemic, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS wasn’t to be denied its Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction. This past Sunday, live and silent auctions, one-on-one video chats with Broadway stars and the opportunity to purchase theatrical collectables were all in evidence. No, this year’s event couldn’t compare to the “Live! From New York! It’s […]

some other new faces

SOME OTHER NEW FACES By Peter Filichia

Don’t be ashamed. We all have misconceptions when we’re just getting interested in theater. Didn’t you once assume that every Broadway theater was literally ON Broadway? And when you were just starting to look through original cast albums be it in stores or on the Internet, when you ran into either NEW FACES OF 1952 […]

hello dolly

THE SHORTEST LONG-RUN RECORD ON RECORD By Peter Filichia

A few weeks ago, my faithful reader Albert Koenig reminded me that a significant anniversary was approaching. Now it’s here, for fifty years ago, on Sept. 8, 1970, The New York Times ran a story with this headline: “Dolly Replacing Liza as Fairest Lady: Show’s Matinee Tomorrow to Set Record.” Indeed, on the afternoon of […]

twist

LET’S DO THE TWIST By Peter Filichia

Twice in the same year, Anita Gillette played characters who were interested in the dance that the nation had been fervently embracing. The Twist. In early 1962, in ALL AMERICAN — the musical that Charles Strouse and Lee Adams wrote immediately after BYE BYE BIRDIE — Gillette played a college student Susan. She established in her […]

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.