BROADWAY TO MAIN STREET – THE ROAD MUCH TRAVELED By Peter Filichia
Last week, I mentioned that august musical theater scholar Laurence Maslon had written a terrific new book: BROADWAY TO MAIN STREET: HOW SHOW TUNES ENCHANTED AMERICA (Oxford University Press, $34.95) Let me count the ways it is indeed terrific. Although most of the tome centers on original cast albums, Maslon takes us back to the […]
A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND ALBUMS By Peter Filichia
For decades, people haven’t believed me. Now, thanks to what Laurence Maslon included on page 220 of his terrific new book BROADWAY TO MAIN STREET: HOW SHOW TUNES ENCHANTED AMERICA (Oxford University Press, $34.95), everyone can see that I haven’t been fibbing all these years. My story goes back to the morning of January 29, […]
HOORAY FOR IRVING BERLIN! — AND HERSHEY FELDER By Peter Filichia
It comes late in YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN. Lucy Van Pelt simply sneaks up behind the Beethoven-obsessed Schroeder and taps him on the shoulder. Once he turns around, she says “Hooray for Irving Berlin!” and runs off before he can say anything (or stone her). Hooray for Hershey Felder, the pianist-actor who wrote […]
NOEL COWARD’S SWEET POTATO – Sort Of By Peter Filichia
Fifty years ago this week, it began previews without a record company having signed on to do the original Broadway cast album. And considering that NOEL COWARD’S SWEET POTATO lasted all of forty-four performances, no company was willing to step up to the plate after the fact. Clive Barnes, then the powerful critic of the […]
SALLY, IRENE AND MARY By Peter Filichia
Shall we spend our September 4th celebrating the ninety-sixth anniversary of SALLY, IRENE AND MARY? The 1922 musical by Eddie Dowling – who’d have his biggest success twenty-two years later with THE GLASS MENAGERIE – was inspired by three recent smash-hits: SALLY (1920; 561 performances) IRENE (1919; 675 performances) and MARY (1920; 220 performances). IRENE, […]
