Stephen Schwartz’s Recommendations By Peter Filichia
If only the powers-that-be at RCA Victor had listened to Stephen Schwartz. The story he told me while we traveled to a children’s musical theater festival in Atlanta made me tremendously sad. It’s about to make you sad, too. The discussion started because I had only recently discovered The Pipe Dream, a 1969 RCA Victor […]
The Start of A Chorus Line By Peter Filichia
Were fifteen in attendance, twenty-two or some number in between? Accounts vary among those who participated. Only one thing is for sure: January 26, 1974 — forty-four years ago this week – saw a group of Broadway pros meet at the Nickolaus Exercise Center on Third and East 23rd. In the words of Thommie Walsh, […]
Three Fiftieth Anniversaries By Peter Filichia
Three wonderful scores and a trio of Tony-winning performances were first – or last – heard on Broadway a full fifty years ago. January 18, 1968 was the opening of The Happy Time, the first of two Kander and Ebb scores that would debut that year. Zorba would be the other. It may be Kander […]
Up in Smoke By Peter Filichia
“L&M to Lucky Strike.” So goes a lyric in “Here’s Love,” the title song from Meredith Willison’s 1963 musicalization of Miracle on 34th Street. I listen to it every holiday season, for it takes place during the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas — and I’ve always adored its title song. “Here’s Love” is first and […]
MAME: The End-of-the-Year Musical By Peter Filichia
Spent the last week of December listening to Mame. I always do, and not because of “We Need a Little Christmas,” fun though it is. But the final week of December is when Mame Dennis is most accurate when she sings in her opening song (“It’s Today”) “And though it’s far from the first of […]
