Review by Ron Fassler . . .
The title “Peter Filichia and Friends: Broadway Tale and Tunes” tells you what you’re getting yourself into even if you have no idea who Peter Filichia is (a lovely person seated at my table at the splendid 54 Below did not . . . and he told me the evening fulfilled even his best expectations). But as someone who also knows their Gomez Addams from their John Adams, I will forever doff my chapeau to Filichia, who has clocked in an astonishing 13,000 shows during his theatregoing lifetime. A wonderful storyteller and host (he’s been cracking wise at the podium for the annual Theater World Awards ceremony for many years now), he presented a potpourri of Broadway’s best for this one-night only event on Monday evening, with a cast that were every bit as good as the excellent material showcased. With Michael Lavine as musical director, things played with grace and efficiency, even at a 90-minute running time.
While introducing the various acts, Filichia offered loads of theatre history fun facts, a talent at which he excels. Puns played a big part, as well as asking us to look for certain things in songs that made for the equivalent of hidden Easter eggs. It all added to the merriment of the enthusiastic audience, seeped in deeply religious worshipping of the theatre gods (by that, I mean deities like Irving Berlin). In the dozen or so songs, we got Berlin, as well as Rodgers & Hammerstein, Comden & Green, Kander & Ebb, Lerner & Loewe, Bock & Harnick—it was a good night for ampersands. We even got a short scene leading into a song during the very first of the evening with William Parry and Maureen Silliman, a longtime couple in real life, portraying mature versions of Arthur and Guenevere for the title song from Camelot. Very sweet.
Adam Grupper, who understudied Danny Burstein as Tevye in the 2015 revival of Fiddler on the Roof, gave us a beautifully nuanced rendition of “If I Were a Rich Man,” which certainly can take its place among the finest “I Want” songs written for a male protagonist in the history of Broadway musicals. Grupper extrapolated every ounce of joy and pathos out of the song, filling it with personal meaning that made it downright moving. Dick Scanlan, known primarily as the person behind launching the stage version of Thoroughly Modern Millie as its book writer and lyricist, was on hand to offer a wonderful personal story about what the song he chose to sing meant to him by way of how he met his husband. It was Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “So Far,” a mostly forgotten song from Allegro, one of the few R & H shows that did not become a perennial.
Gerard Alessandrini, the creator of the Forbidden Broadway franchise, dusted off his version of “Razzle Dazzle” which, considering that it’s from Chicago, served as a clever spoof on all the replacements that have done the show over the past thirty years of its run. Later, he had Christine Pedi join him (veteran of many FB editions), doing her ever-reliable Ethel Merman imitation for a duet with new words to “You’re Just in Love,” this time for a parody of how times have changed because of the use of mics (“I keep singing though my voice is air”). Pedi, as the Merm, knocked it out of the park. It was also nice to see Alessandrini up on stage as he also appeared in the very first edition of Forbidden Broadway in 1982!
Karen Akers also revisited her past by singing Maury Yeston, Robert Wright, and George Forrest’s “What You Need” from Grand Hotel. Having created the part of Raffaela, the years pealed away as she assumed the role once more. What a one-of-a-kind instrument she still possesses! And shout out to Alex Rybeck, who provided her piano accompaniment. Neva Small followed, still an ingenue at heart even after having made her Broadway debut in 1962’s Something More! Bob Merrill’s “A Girl with Too Much Heart,” which was written for the 1978 Broadway-bound Prince of Grand Street—a musical that never got out of Philadelphia and Boston—robbed us of Neva Small as its leading lady. It also robbed us of one last musical led by the great Robert Preston. Sadly, between that time and when he passed in 1987, Preston never returned to the stage.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood, with its wonderful gimmick of how the murder at the center of its mystery is revealed, allowed for two of the shows “confessions” to be sung. Since Charles Dickens died before finishing his manuscript, it was Rupert Holmes’s genius idea to create a musical based on the book and let the audience decide “whodunnit.” Paul Adam Schaefer eerily channeled the singing voice of Howard McGillin, the original Jasper on Broadway, with his version of the confession. And Robert Creighton recreated his confession as Durdles from the 2012 Roundabout revival.
Late in the show came the one piece not from a Broadway musical and it proved a highlight. Composer Steve Schachlin took to the piano and was joined by Blake Lee Zolfo, co-creator of the song “My New York Life.” Semi-autobiographical, Zolfo took us through a young actor from Indiana getting used to what it’s like to pursue a career in “The Greatest City in the World,” as another Broadway composer-lyricist has put it. The freeform nature of the lyrics is both funny and poignant, such as:
Now I work at Equinox.
The front desk guy at Equinox.
Last month I almost paid my rent on time.
Also:
And all my books are on my phone.
And all my friends are home alone.
This is my glamorous New York life.
Lovely.
Aeja Barrows did superbly in the eleven o’clock spot with “Deep in the Night” from the 1972 Broadway musical Inner City, which I had the good fortune of seeing as a teenager. Singing a song that won Linda Hopkins a Tony, Barrows scored bigtime.
Finally, A.J. Shively, who played Jean-Michel in the last Broadway revival of La Cage Aux Folles, sang that show’s anthem “The Best of Times Are Now,” asking—and receiving—audience participation in a sing-along.
A fun and collegial night; may Peter Filichia and Friends return as often as they like to 54 Below.
“Peter Filichia and Friends: Broadway Tale and Tunes” played Monday March 2, 2026, at 54 Below, 254 W 54th Street, NYC. For information on future programming, click here:
Photos by Ron Fassler.
Headline photo: Christine Pedi and Gerard Allessandrini.
