Peter Filichia (born 1946) is the former New York-based

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

critic for ''

The Star-Ledger ''The Star-Ledger'' is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to '' The Jersey Journal'' of Jersey City, ''The Times'' of Trenton and the '' Staten Island Advance'', all of ...

'' newspaper in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat, seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County and the second largest city within the New Yo ...

and New Jersey's television station News 12, as well as for ''

The Asbury Park Press The ''Asbury Park Press'' is a daily newspaper in Monmouth and Ocean counties of New Jersey and has the third largest circulation in the state. It has been owned by Gannett since 1997. Its reporting staff has been awarded numerous national honor ...

'' . In addition, Filichia has two weekly columns at Masterworks Broadway and Kritzerland, and also writes regular entries for the

Music Theatre International Music Theatre International (MTI) is a theatrical licensing agency based in New York City. Description MTI was founded in 1952 by American composer and lyricist Frank Loesser and orchestrator Don Walker. Along with the licensing rights to L ...

Marquee blog. He wrote a regular column, "Peter Filichia's Diary," for the website TheaterMania.com from November 2001 until October 2011, and previously for the website BroadwayOnLine. He is the author of the books ''Let's Put on a Musical!: How to Choose the Right Show for Your School, Community or Professional Theater'', ''Broadway Musicals: the Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season, 1959 to 2009'', ''Broadway MVPs 1960-2010: The Most Valuable Players of the Past 50 Seasons,'' ''Strippers, Showgirls and Sharks: A Very Opinionated History of the Broadway Musicals that Did Not Win the Tony Award'', and ''The Great Parade: Broadway's Astonishing, Never-to-Be-Forgotten 1963-1964 Season''. At the beginning of his career, Filichia was a columnist for '' Seventeen'' and wrote books for teenagers. He served four terms as president and chairman of the nominating committee of the

Drama Desk The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. Fol ...

, and has also been a member of the nominating committee for the Lucille Lortel Awards. He is currently head of the selection committee of the

Theatre World Award The Theatre World Award is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or Off-Broadway. It was first awarded for the 1945–1946 theatre se ...

s and has hosted the annual award ceremony for a number of years. Filichia has become a playwright with the work ''Adam's Gifts'', a loose contemporary adaptation of Dicken's ''A Christmas Carol''. Productions include Theatre at St. John's in Manhattan, Spotlight Vermont, and the Clinton Area Showboat Theater in Clinton, Iowa. He has also written "God Shows Up", a satire of

televangelism Televangelism ( tele- "distance" and "evangelism," meaning " ministry," sometimes called teleministry) is the use of media, specifically radio and television, to communicate Christianity. Televangelists are ministers, whether official or self-pr ...

, currently in a limited run at Playroom Theater in New York. Filichia's adaptation of

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (, ; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, , ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and world ...

's ''

The Bourgeois Gentleman ''Le Bourgeois gentilhomme'' (, translated as ''The Bourgeois Gentleman'', ''The Middle-Class Aristocrat'', or ''The Would-Be Noble'') is a five-act ''comédie-ballet'' – a play intermingled with music, dance and singing – written by Molièr ...

'' was presented in the 1972 New Jersey Shakespeare Festival. He has also written the liner notes for many Broadway cast albums, especially reissues of such recordings as ''

Jesus Christ Superstar ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' is a sung-through rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Loosely based on the Gospels' accounts of the Passion, the work interprets the psychology of Jesus and other characters, with ...

,'' ''

Fade Out - Fade In Fade or Fading may refer to: Science and technology * Fading, a loss of signal strength at a radio receiver * Color fade, the alteration of color by light * Fade (audio engineering), a gradual change in sound volume * Brake fade, in vehicle bra ...

'', ''Subways are for Sleeping, Ankles Aweigh, Redhead, Parade'' (Jerry Herman), ''Sweet Charity'' (Film Soundtrack)'', Prettybelle, Wish You Were Here'' and the Roundabout Theatre revival cast recording of ''110 In The Shade''.Liner note credits as per AllMusic.com as of 2016-05-13 Filichia is also the critic-in-residence for the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,0 ...

College-Conservatory of Music. He has served on an assessment panel for the NEA and is the musical theater judge for the ASCAP Awards program. He has appeared on television with

Sally Jessy Raphaël Sally Lowenthal (born February 25, 1935), better known as Sally Jessy Raphael, is an American former tabloid talk show host known for her program '' Sally'' (originally called ''The Sally Jessy Raphael Show''). Early life and education Lowent ...

Phil Donahue Phillip John Donahue (born December 21, 1935) is an American media personality, writer, film producer and the creator and host of ''The Phil Donahue Show''. The television program, later known simply as ''Donahue'', was the first talk show forma ...

, and on ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves ...

''. In 2004 and 2005, he hosted with

Matthew Murray Matthew Murray (1765 – 20 February 1826) was an English steam engine and machine tool manufacturer, who designed and built the first commercially viable steam locomotive, the twin cylinder ''Salamanca'' in 1812. He was an innovative design ...

the live theatre discussion show ''Bitch or Brag About Broadway'' at New York's 45th Street Theatre. Since March 2009, he has been on the panel of reviewers heard on the podcast
This Week on Broadway
produced and hosted by James Marino from BroadwayRadio.com. A fan of baseball and baseball statistics, Filichia claims to have seen 11,000 performances in the theater as of October 1, 2017.

References

American theater critics Living people 1946 births Place of birth missing (living people) {{US-theater-stub