Peter Filichia

The laughs were long, hard and genuine guffaws after most jokes. The applause was strong and hard after all songs. The opening night crowd couldn’t contain its enthusiasm -- and had no desire to.And the show was BIG.Eighteen years ago, BIG had ...

Too bad there isn’t a meter to measure civic pride.If there were, Mason City, Iowa – the real River City that bookwriter-composer-lyricist Meredith Willson fictionalized in his Tony-winning 1957-58 musical THE MUSIC MAN – would score ...

He'd called and said he'd be a little late for the 10 a.m. rehearsal, so even when the clock struck 10:15 and Bernie Yvon hadn't yet arrived, no one gave it much of a thought.By 10:30, a few started to worry.By 10:45, most everyone was ...

It was an inspired notion. Ten years after Sandy Wilson had struck gold as the bookwriter, composer and lyricist of The Boy Friend, he decided to revisit those “perfect young ladies from finishing school” that he’d created. Now he’d imagine ...

Living to be 90 represents a generous life span. Most of us, if we could, would sign a contract today if we were assured we’d be able to last that long. And yet, even after we see someone has attained nonagenarian status, we’re still saddened ...

The thought occurs to me while I’m driving to Cranford, New Jersey, to see The Theatre Project Jr.’s production of BUGSY MALONE, JR.This was minutes after I’d finished watching Alan Parker’s 1976 film, a spoof of Prohibition-era ...

They’re still talking about your wildly successful production of The Music Man, aren’t they? Oh, that dynamic actor who played Harold Hill! Ah, that equally potent actress as Marian Paroo!Why not pair them again in LEAP OF FAITH?LEAP OF ...

Saisha Wesley, Kiana Carbone, Liana Zaino, Maginnis Buckley, Aneesah Abdur-Razzaq. Photo by: RAY LITTERIO PHOTOGRAPHYAugust is the month when kids who have been enrolled in summer theater arts programs show what they have learned in June and ...

You could, of course, do Catch Me If You Can the way it was done on Broadway. Take Troupe 4982 from Bradford High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which brought its production to the Thespian Festival in Lincoln in June. Through a production that pretty ...

Photos by John Nollendorfs.Does the musical that toasted “To Life!” have any life left?Oh, yes. Almost 50 years to the day that Fiddler On The Roof began rehearsals at the Lyceum Theatre in New York, Edina (Minnesota) High School proved ...