How’s How Now, Dow Jones Now? By Peter Filichia
There have been many Broadway musicals that had state-of-the-art topicality when they were originally written. Call Me Madam in 1950 offered a thinly veiled Ambassador Perle Mesta. Happy Hunting told of goings-on around Grace Kelly’s 1956 wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco. In 1960, Bye Bye Birdie dealt with the military’s drafting of a rock […]
SATURDAY IN THE MUSEUM WITH GEORGE By Peter Filichia
So would the man manning the information desk at the Art Institute of Chicago know what I meant? He could be pardoned if he didn’t, for I would be asking my question in a purposely oblique way. I did smile nicely to show I really wasn’t out for trouble. Then I posed the question: “Where […]
Let’s Immerse Ourselves in the Verse By Peter Filichia
“While the storm clouds gather far across the sea, Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free. Let us all be grateful for a land so fair As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.” Can you identify the song from which these words come? Believe me, you’ve heard the song hundreds of […]
Chicago Reaches Its Majority By Peter Filichia
If a musical were a person, the revival of Chicago would now be old enough to drink in all fifty states. Precisely twenty-one years have passed since the revival of the Kander-Ebb-Fosse 1975 masterpiece opened its second Broadway run: three months at the Richard Rodgers, six years at the Shubert and then to the Ambassador […]
Urinetown Redux By Peter Filichia
Why have so many years passed since I played the cast album of Urinetown? Back in 2001, I had the disc on my CD player at a non-stop clip that threatened the claim that these silver slivers never wear out. T.S. (Cats) Eliot’s J. Alfred Prufrock measured out his life in coffee spoons; I was […]
