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http://www.kritzerland.com/filichia.htm Here's a link to the article

I love the new revisal of SIDE SHOW and am planning to go back and take my mother on December 21 but Peter Filichia's column on Friday raised some interesting issues. This critic thinks that when Daisy finds out that Terry won't marry her, she should say, “I understand, Terry. I know I’m asking a lot. So no hard feelings. Let me instead thank you for taking me and Violet away from the freak show and getting us into vaudeville. You made our lives so much better than they were, and I’ll always ...

MUTINY! David Essex, Che in the original London production of EVITA with Elaine Paige in 1978, starred and wrote the music for this musical of MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY. Critics could only praise the magnificent sets which featured a four and a half ton, 30-foot sailing ship that "spins, rises, tilts, turns, floats and sways all the while revolving to reveal below-deck cabins, high masts, vast areas of deck space and rigging. Seldom has London had a stage set that was so consistently intriguing an...

1985 saw some musicals open on London's West End: LES MISERABLES divided the critics. One review stated, "Frankly, LES MIZ is a disappointment...the music is neither strong nor varied enough to sustain three hours...classic novel reduced to a comic strip...stands in relation to the original as a singing telegram to an epic." But some critics found the show an enthralling spectacle filled with good tunes. Sheridan Morley raved, "Not since Sondheim's SWEENEY TODD has there been a score which so...

There were some notable new plays that opened in London in 1985 including: David Hare and Howard Brenton's PRAVDA, a scabrously funny comedy starring Anthony Hopkins as a ruthless Rupert Murdoch-like newspaper tycoon who prefers bad newspapers to good because they sell better. Hopkins' dominating presence created a humorless monster of power on the rampage and one critic wrote that his performance was arguably the most magnetic in a contemporary play since Laurence Olivier's Archie Rice in TH...

Tonight I would like to look back at the 1985 theatre season in London. The West End saw many stars in revivals that year such as Dame Judi Dench and Daniel Massey in Harley Granville-Barker's political melodrama WASTE, Deborah Kerr in THE CORN IS GREEN, Joan Plowright in MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION, Tim Curry in the Restoration Comedy LOVE FOR LOVE and Ben Kingsley's intelligent Moor and David Suchet's vividly-realized Iago in OTHELLO. Ian McKellen's comic performance in Richard Sheridan's THE ...

Yesterday I took my father and brother to see MATILDA on Broadway. We all enjoyed it very much especially the talented and adorable Bailey Ryon as Matilda. I think little Bailey is just amazing, the perfect Matilda in every way. At intermission I asked my father, "Bailey is cute, right?" He laughed and said, "Yeah, but what's up with her hair? Colin explained that Matilda has to have bad hair to show that her parents don't care about her. Is he right? What do other people think about Matilda'...

The link: http://wp.tdf.org/index.php/2013/01/broadway-child-actor-guardian-matilda/

I found this article fascinating and am glad someone took the time to write about how shows deal with all those kids backstage. After seeing MATILDA three times it has really captured my imagination and I do wonder if I would enjoy working with those super cute super talented kids. I am a librarian and work with kids the exact same age as the kids in MATILDA but I don't know for sure whether that would make me a good child wrangler or guardian. Is this considered a good job?

I started going to the theater as a boy growing up in the 1980s and have seen 524 shows on Broadway and 206 plays Off-Broadway. My two favorite shows of the past decade or so are MATILDA and CARRIE. I was crazy for CARRIE's Off-Broadway revival last year and ended up seeing it at the Lucille Lortel theater five times even though it wasn't like me to see a show multiple times. CARRIE and MATILDA were both originally produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-Upon-Avon and both show...

Broadway Show Fan, thanks for posting...would you mind saying more about the different Matildas you saw? Do you have a favorite or can you tell which little girl Ben Brantley will see or be the one who performs at the Tonys, etc? I am also a big huge fan of MATILDA...I am lucky enough to have seen the very first performance of Bailey Ryon and she was perfect...so adorable and great stage presence! I especially liked the part where Bailey sings "Naughty" at the beginning of the show in Matilda...

Thanks for all your comments. Yes, you are right that it's too bad for the kids who didn't get chosen. When the five kids were in the manager's office getting their invitations, there was another girl, 8-year-old Jennifer who obviously could tell something exciting was going on and she kept looking through the glass and at one point even tried to open the door to hear. We picked 9-year-old Luz but not her 8-year-old brother Juan who also comes to the library every day and really wants to see ...

I am a librarian at Queens Public Library in South Jamaica. Today the manager told me we could take a small group of five of our favorite kids into Manhattan and see a Sunday matinee of a Broadway show in March. We chose five adorable 9-year-olds who come to the library every day after school. What show would you take them to? My first choice was ANNIE...I loved this current production but that show only offers a discount for Sunday at 6:30 and not the matinee. MAMMA MIA offers discount ticke...

Yes, we got Alexis Bledel's autograph and she was happy to pose for pictures too! God, she's gorgeous!

OMG! So happy for Molly Ranson and Marin Mazzie...but I think both should have been nominated for Lead Actress opposed to Mazzie as Featured.

I was listening to Peter Filichia on the Broadway Radio podcast and he feels badly for the creators of CARRIE having to see their show flop twice now in New York. Filichia believes that the writers must regret this revival because it meant having their hearts broken all over again. I wonder if the creators are happy with Stafford Arima's production...some say this Off-Broadway CARRIE is too small and cheap-looking but I really loved the intimacy of this revival and sitting in the second row I...

Okay, someone told me Chris sings, "Ever since the world began/Same plot, everyone's been dumping on their fellow man" and Carrie's line is "Maybe I'll dance/and try hard to laugh more than I do now!" Nice...and I really like both songs.

Wow, so the rumor was true! Brantley attended a performance in which the red lighting didn't work during the big scene at the prom. Too bad...that scene was very effective all three times I saw it in previews. Is CARRIE the most unlucky show ever, or what?

Oops! I'm sorry what I meant, of course, is that Carrie's lyric is "And try not to laugh more than I do NOW!" But what I wonder is why this character would want to try that? Thanks!

As a big fan of CARRIE the musical I was just unable to understand one of the lyrics and was hoping someone could help me out. "The World According to Chris" starts with Chris singing, "Ever since the world began/----- everyone's been dumping on their fellow man." The word I'm trying to hear sounds like Shameblot. Does anyone know? Also, in the title song Carrie sings "I might take a chance/And try not to laugh more than I do know." Does this lyric bother anyone else? Why would Carrie want to...